The new BARB contract will provide fully weighted Astra data , but the initial results have thrown up some problems which mean a reporting delay.
Following the first few days of analysis of the overnight quarter hour data from the new service for Astra, it is clear that on some occasions house- wife subgroup ratings can be in conflict with ratings for other groups.
This arises from the weighting of households with guest viewing where housewife status is factored . The problem occurs when unacceptably high weights are generated within the rim weighting system.This leads to unstableand unreliable data.
It is necessary to institute a procedure whereby data are not published when unacceptably high weights occur but that the rims are immediately modified and the data reprocessed.
Recommendations by RSMB have been accepted and were implemented on 16 August by AGB. The results of this implementation are currently being urgently studied.
As a result of the need for BARB to study the results of these amendments, it has been agreed that all data fromthe new system relating to Astra shall be embargoed from 19 August. From that date, data from Astra homes will not be included on computer files, nor will there be an Astra report or detailed Astra table in the forthcoming press release.
It is hoped that these data will be resumed as soon as possible and a dead- line has been set for 27 August for resolution.Data will then be recomputed by AGB for the new system back to 5th August and tapes will be issued then.
Existing data in the public domain, namely quarter hour ratings for Astra households, should not be used fortrading, commercial purposes etc.
Further checks on other aspects of Astra data, particularly affecting the thematic channels, will be carried out, and the data will be subjected to further quality controls.
