RAJAR Invites Tenders For New Measurement Contract
The RAJAR Board has approved recommendations for the new contract specification and is to issue an Invitation to Tender within the week.
The audience measurement body expects that tenders will be submitted before the end of the year, with the new contract due to be awarded in the early part of 2006, for a 2007 start.
The new contract specification was developed in conjunction with the RAJAR Specification Working Group and provides a broad brief in order to accommodate new possibilities arising from RAJAR’s current audiometer fieldwork tests.
The new contract will also allow for innovation from contractors themselves, with tenders invited across a wide range of methodologies, including a full audiometer panel, diary plus audiometer panel and hybrid solutions.
Unlike previous contracts, RAJAR will also allow companies to bid for the entire contract, or specific sections of its operation.
Interested parties will be given three months to submit their proposals to RAJAR, from which a shortlist will be compiled. Submissions will then be reviewed, and the new contract awarded in the first quarter of 2006. The time-scale has been designed to allow time for a series of parallel runs to take place with the new and old methodologies during 2006.
Commenting on the tender process, Sally de la Bedoyere, managing director of RAJAR, said: “The RAJAR Board has taken a number of major decisions which will enable us to forge ahead on all fronts for the remainder of this year, namely its approval of the contract specification, the agreement to issue an Invitation to Tender and its continued support for our national fieldwork tests.
“RAJAR is tasked by its subscribers to select the very best methodology for the radio industry and therefore we must pursue every avenue which presents itself so we can deliver thoroughly tested, accurate and affordable ‘gold-standard’ data both now and in the future. I am in no doubt that the new specification will serve the requirements of our subscribers and the future radio landscape well.”
The new specification requires contractors to measure radio output by both analogue and digital platforms, through Digital TV, DAB digital radio and the internet. In addition, the specification details a range of requirements that RAJAR must insist on as part of the new survey, including improvements to the radio map, sample design and reporting.
The new specification proposes that TSAs (total survey areas) be based on postcode districts rather than postcode sectors. This is intended to simplify the radio map and produce a more uniform and robust sample. In addition, more effective and stable samples are sought, as well as improved demographic quotas for traditionally difficult sectors, especially young men and ethnic minorities.
Reporting will continue to be based upon TSA, while an additional figure of all national listening, based upon the stations’ same survey period, is required to reflect increased out of area listening in a digital age.
Reporting times are to remain on a quarterly basis as per the present methodology but with a shorter turnaround time.
RAJAR has also delivered an update on the fieldwork tests of new audiometer technology, announcing that the fixed panel test with the Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) had commenced earlier than scheduled in May, while the rolling sweep tests on the Arbitron PPM and the laboratory tests on the Eurisko Media Monitor commenced in June and July respectively.
In addition, RAJAR has started tests on a new audiometer developed by IPSOS-RSL, which uses mobile phone technology to capture encoded signals.
De la Bedoyere explained: “I am happy to report that we are progressing with the national fieldwork tests. Both the fixed panel and rolling sweep are under way with the Arbitron PPM and field tests are to begin later this month on the Eurisko Media Monitor, for which we have been awaiting product delivery. In addition, we have been able to adapt some aspects of the testing programme to incorporate the emergence of a new audiometer, announced in May 2005. This new audiometer is currently undergoing laboratory tests and if these are promising, then RAJAR should be able to test it in the field in the autumn.”
The RAJAR boss stated that all audiometer tests should be completed by the end of the year, enabling the results to be considered alongside tenders for its new measurement contract.
RAJAR: 0207 903 5350 www.rajar.co.uk