Radio is constantly expanding. There are many new outlets for this expansion the commercialisation of radio, shifting from the old public service scenario; the growing trend of localisation and regionalism of radio. But also, differentiating it from other media seeking proximity to audiences; and radio streaming across the Internet with its consequent changes in listener behaviour and attentiveness.
This paper describes the development of a new multiple week reach model for Dutch radio data. The new reach formula has been developed to solve the inconsistency between available radio data that describe average week results and radio campaigns consisting of three to eight weeks of advertising. The result of the conducted research is a formula that enables an accurate evaluation of the reach and frequency of multiple week radio campaigns based on multiple observations in radio research. Most of todays radio research can deliver only limited data on the listening behaviour of radio audiences. Because of the constraints of methods, data covering more than one week of the radio life of respondents are rare. But radio-advertising campaigns tend to stretch out between three to eight weeks. To solve this inconsistency a new multiple week reach model for the Dutch market has been developed. This paper describes the process and results of developing this new reach calculation. An actual live case from a user perspective is included in this paper.
Switzerland is the first and, as of now, only country in which radio listening is not established by interviews but rather electronically. The Radiocontrol (RC) technique is based on audio comparison and has been delivering official radio data since January 2001. Previously 22,000 people were recruited by random quota sampling. Radiocontrol presents the radio world in a different light. Radio is far more than an accompaniment through the day. Media events such as the election of the Federal Council, for example, are reflected in the newly established data and show how listeners also use that medium selectively.
Last year kids spent or influenced the spending of $500 billion. It is not surprising then that advertisers want to reach children. Radio can be an attractive means of reaching those kids. To support a new radio format a comprehensive research effort was launched by ABC Radio to better understand how children listen to radio. This paper will review the findings of that research and report on childrens radio listening in general and listening to a childrens format in particular.
Radio is a very popular medium in Poland. The Polish radio market is presently defined on one hand, by high vitality regional and local stations, and on the other by the clearly defined leadership of ProgrammeI of the Polish Radio and the strong, equivalent position of two commercial networks - RMF FM and Radio Zet. At first glance, this arrangement of forces seems to be quite stable. In fact this situation is far from petrifaction. Especially in local markets the dynamics of change in patterns of radio listening is still strong. One can also see the shaping of different patterns of listening to national stations or networks in various parts of Poland, as well as definite profiles of co-listening behaviour. It is also evident how important a variable the place is in surveys of radio listening. The rapid changes taking place in the radio market require an adequate radio audience measurement system. This paper seeks to briefly present how these changes have stimulated the development of research techniques used for a reliable evaluation of the radio audience in Poland.
The research on selected regions of Poland by Wojciech Konieczny, in association with B.P.S. Consultants Poland Ltd., assumed the hypothesis that in the conditions of the developed radio market, if radio stations and their principals are concerned with the range among the average person, the control of the regular audience is of greater importance than the control of core listeners. The regular audience better reflects the average daily range of the station, moreover, it enables identification of both the possible negative tendencies in the way audience contact the station Programme and the reasons for lack of loyalty conditioned by the programme preferences of shared listeners.
This paper refers to three categories of sources: The 75000 Radio survey which has been the radio audience reference survey in France for more than ten years. The Radio panel-, in 1993 and 1996 Mediametrie conducted a three week radio panel. The diarists were recruited by telephone among recent respondents of the 75000. The sample consisted of 4680 complete diaries in 1993 and 5068 in 1997. The 1993 and 1996 issues included weekend questions about the stations memorized in the household. The third survey, Radio set memorization behaviours is a poll that Mediametrie conducted in April 1997 among 300 persons owning at least one memorized radio set, and who declared having personally memorized the set they use most. This survey was designed to deepen the panels weekend questions relative to memorization. This poll consisted in questions on the following topics: o personal and/or collective usage of the most used radio set, o number of stations memorized on this radio set, o frequency of setting memorization, o personal and collective reasons for selecting stations, o stations memorized on the first button, o awareness and listening frequency of national stations, o listening of non memorized stations.
This paper describes the method and the results of a research project concerning the attention, appreciation and social context of radio listening. The results are presented in two ways: the first part contains general results about appreciation, attention and listening in company in general. In the second part the attention, appreciation and social context scores of different types of radio stations are compared.
This paper goes beyond the traditional radio audience surveys in that it proposes a methodology that allows both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of radio audience. This approach builds on the "Media Time" surveys that we have conducted since 1993. We analyse radio listening consumption by integrating five factors: - parallel activities, - places of listening, - time of listening, - lenght of time, - quantity of advertising received while listening. As additional information, each individual's exposure to other media is also given - print, television, outdoor advertising. The newness and value of our approach is manifold: - classic radio surveys generally only cover lenght and time of listening, - multi-media complementarity, i.e. the study of exposure to additiormal media, is usually limited to television. To illustrate our qualitative approach to radio audiences, the report will be divided into five parts: - a brief theoretical note on TMPR's "Media-Time" approach, - an overview on the reality of radio listening, - a look at the diversity of listenership behaviour for various radio-station types, - how different target audiences listen to radio, - examples of multi-media complementarity
SOBEMAP MARKETING, a polling organisation belonging to the SOFRES group, has been carrying out audience research by listeners report for RMB/RTBF since November 1991. On its own initiative, this organisation has been introducing semiometry to the Belgian market since 1990. The study sets out to analyse: -the expectation of consumers with regard to radio programming through the expression of their preferences (level of preference by programme, preference for different types of programme for different times of day, perception of radio stations.) - the listening behaviour of the audience (stations listened to, time of listening and listening habits). The expectations and listening behaviour of the audience are then processed using semiometric analysis. A listener typology based on their expectations has been created.
For many years, television has had instruments of audiometric measurement at its disposal. These measurements are instantaneous, precise and specific (programme by programme). Fixed panels (same people interviewed on an eight week basis) are able to follow individual audience movements over long periods of time, and authorise specific analysis. Contrary to television, radio has inherent qualities which hamper audience measurements: numerous and mobile equipment, high number of broadcasting stations and away from home listening. Daily individual interviews (different sample each day) provide the market with statistics on the preceding day's audience volume per station. However, neither the listening patterns of the audience, nor the day to day variations in programmes heard are treated. Mediametrie's radio panel offers detailed information on these issues which fail to appear in the standard radio reference survey. Its duration over 23 days has enabled Euromedia to expand understanding of the audiences with information on the programmes. This is a new criterion in analysing the behaviour of radio listeners. The research and development undertaken by Euromedia provides an alternative and richer approach to quantifying radio listening. This is based on the knowledge of the programmes listened to. The degree of fidelity to one particular programme, the level of duplication and the changing of audiences between programmes have been analysed. A typology of audiences in relation to the types of programmes heard (news, music programmes, entertainment, etc.) allows us to define different patterns of listening behaviour. These results have enabled us to conclude that those who listen to the radio have a strategy of choosing preferred programmes. This strategy is related to their tastes, their interests, and more generally, the information they wish to acquire through the selected programmes.
The advance in technology has been partially a consequence of the increase in radio programming. This accompanies and will continue to accompany the development of pre- programming of radio stations. Following a rationalisation of demand through pre-programming, radio stations need to ensure that they are included in the 'basket" or set of stations pre- selected and pre- programmed by each listener. This phenomenon is becoming more and more important because the number of stations heard is constrained. This article provides previously unavailable information on pre- programming and the number of stations heard in France. Potential demand is defined by stations that are pre- programmed while discriminating from actual demand which is represented by those stations to which the listener actually listens.