RAJAR Widens Audiometer Tests To Include BARB
RAJAR’s programme of audiometer testing will be given an extra £500,000 over the next two months, extending the research to create the most extensive fieldwork tests to date in the UK and include some data on TV viewing with BARB.
The next round of field tests will begin in June, running for 12 weeks and focusing on two audiometers – the Arbitron Portable People Meter (PPM) and the Eurisko Media Monitor.
The testing forms part of RAJAR’s roadmap to change, announced in September 2004. Explaining the progression towards electronic audience measurement, Sally de la Bedoyere, RAJAR’s managing director, said: “RAJAR’s additional investment of £500,000, on top of the £1.5 million we have already spent on audiometer testing, is further confirmation of our commitment to this ground breaking research.”
She added: “With this new cash injection and our working partnership with Arbitron and Eurisko, we are now not only able to implement the most extensive fieldwork tests ever undertaken in the UK, but also ensure we are on course with our roadmap to enhanced radio audio measurement, earmarked for 2007.”
The latest tests will help determine the capabilities and reliability of the Arbitron and Eurisko meters following their completion of RAJAR’s Audiometer Validation Test last year (see GFK Pulls MediaWatch From RAJAR Audiometer Tests). The new trials will concentrate mainly on compliance issues, testing how respondents use the meters in real life environments.
“We are looking to allay the concerns which arose from our last series of fieldwork tests,” de la Bedoyere explained. “These include the actual time respondents put on the audiometers and whether they wear them all day; whether there is a time of day when they are less likely to wear them; whether there are any demographic groups which have a problem wearing them; and how children will cope with wearing/carrying them. The tests will also provide a first opportunity to analyse listening data which has been captured on a national basis, and ascertain whether there are any regional variances in the data, or, indeed, in compliance.”
The new tests will use a sample of 3,500 adults aged 15 and over which is representative of the UK population. In addition, children aged 6+ are to be recruited at a rate of one for every ten adults. The Arbitron PPM is to be placed with both a fixed panel, similar to that used by BARB, of 700 respondents, and a rolling panel, similar to the current diary method, of 1400 respondents. Meanwhile, the Eurisko Media Monitor will be placed with a rolling panel of 1400 respondents with results of the fieldwork used later in the tendering process.
In addition, the Arbitron PPM tests will include the encoding of a small number of television stations, with RAJAR sharing its compliance findings with BARB.
De la Bedoyere explained, however, that the co-operation between the two audience measurement bodies was not a precursor to unified audience measurement, stating: “Contrary to any speculation, this is not part of a planned strategy to provide a single currency for television and radio broadcast, rather, it is an extremely pragmatic approach to accelerating learning, which can only serve to expand all our knowledge and understanding of the complexities of portable people meters. Rest assured the focus of RAJAR remains firmly on a roadmap to change designed to enhance audience measurement of BBC and Commercial radio stations.”
Bjarne Thelin, chief executive of BARB added: “The planned tests will gather more information about PPMs and maximise our understanding of issues such as rates of human compliance with the audiometers. We are therefore pleased to contribute in some small part to the RAJAR tests.”
RAJAR: 020 7903 535 www.rajar.co.uk