Measure Ownership By Share Of Audience Not Revenue

National Economic Research Associates (NERA) has prepared a report for the Department of National Heritage called “Methods of Media Market Measurement”. The study addresses media market measurement issues for television, radio, and press, looking at the definition of ‘control’ of an enterprise, measurement of market share within each medium, and aggregation of market share measures across media.

The report concludes that in fact measuring audiences is the best way of reflecting plurality, rather than share of revenue. For television and radio this means audience hours, and for printed media circulation or readership. The choice of method of aggregation of shares across media produces widely varying results.

The Media Ownership White Paper makes proposals for immediate changes in media ownership regulation, and also examines longer term measures; the NERA report is to assist in the development of these longer term measures. The Department of National Heritage has asked for comments on the NERA report by October 31.

NERA: 0171 629 6787