MacKenzie Commissions Rival Radio Audience Survey
Kelvin MacKenzie’s The Wireless Group is challenging the existing method of radio audience measurement by commissioning a rival three year survey using electronic measurement devices.
In the past MacKenzie has been an outspoken critic of the current RAJAR diary system of listener monitoring, claiming that it damages advertising revenue at certain radio stations by underestimating the size of their audience (see TWG Research Claims Radio Listening Is Under-Represented).
In an attempt to address this issue, MacKenzie has signed a three year contract with international market research group, GfK, which will conduct a national survey of radio listening using the Radiocontrol wristwatch system of audience measurement (pictured).
Under the deal, audiences for five national BBC analogue stations and three national commercial analogue stations, Classic FM, Virgin and The Wireless Group’s talkSPORT, will be measured.
The first results of the survey, which is based on a sample size of more than 1,900 respondents, will be published in mid-June and on a monthly basis thereafter. Topline results are expected to be released in the first week of May.
Ten London radio stations will also be monitored and the first results from these will be published in mid-September and on a monthly basis from then on.
Commenting on the initiative, MacKenzie said: “This will be great news for the radio industry, advertisers and investors. In essence, watches are a mobile version of BARB, which has supplied stats for the TV industry for the past 20 years.”
MacKenzie insists that electronic measurement is the way forward and has hinted that his company may leave RAJAR at some point in the future. He said: “The Wireless Group will continue as members of RAJAR for the foreseeable future, but not indefinite future.”
Last September MacKenzie released the results of a trial of the electronic wrist-watch device, which he claimed proved the inadequacies of the current diary method. This prompted Justin Sampson, managing director of the RAB, to send a letter to advertisers and agencies defending the RAJAR system (see RAB Defends RAJAR’s Diary System Against Criticism).
RAJAR is due to complete its own research into the use of electronic meters to measure radio audiences (see RAJAR To Complete Meter Testing). However, the company is keen to ensure that the system, which lies at the heart of trading radio audiences, doesn’t suffer any unnecessary disruption.
It took the TV industry months to recover from the problems caused by the introduction of the new BARB methodology at the beginning of last year (see BARB Data Suspended Until 15 January).
Wireless Group: 020 7269 7180
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