[Community Radio] Rajar sets 2007 target for electronic testing

[Michelle McGuire]

Rajar sets 2007 target for electronic testing
  28 September 2004 10:14


Rajar is planning to wipe out its diary system of measuring radio 
audience figures and replace it with electronic methods by 2007.

The radio audience measurement body today unveiled its "roadmap to 
change", ahead of a case in the High Court criticising the current 
system.

The existing system has 130,000 people a year registering their 
listening habits in a booklet, which Kelvin MacKenzie, chief executive 
of the Wireless Group, claims underestimates the audience.

MacKenzie is pushing for the introduction of electronic devices that 
people can carry with them, and is taking Rajar to court in November 
claiming millions of pounds in "lost advertising revenue".

But Rajar denies this action has prompted the publication of their 
timetable, which follows an industry-wide consultation that began in 
May this year.

Three candidates – Arbitron, Gfk and Eurisko - will submit their 
electronic devices for testing between October 2004 and March 2005. 
These devices include a wristwatch, a pager and a new meter that has 
yet to be revealed.

The contract to handle the new research will be put out in tender in 
April 2005 and could be awarded in September 2005. The new system will 
triple the cost of monitoring radio audiences to £12m a year.

  The final phase will see parallel runs with the diary and the selected 
audiometer from April 2006. If this is a success, the new data will be 
analysed in October 2006 with a view to publishing the results the 
following January.

Sally de la Bedoyere, managing director of Rajar, said: "The Rajar 
roadmap to enhanced radio audience measurement is ambitious, but 
certainly achievable.

"It is the final stage of a journey Rajar began in 2001 and it leads to 
a seismic change in radio audience measurement, namely the possible 
move to electronic measurement.

"We are optimistic that, by 2007, we will be heralding the introduction 
of an audio-meter based methodology, which measures analogue, digital, 
digital TV and internet listening."

Source: broadcastnow.co.uk