2018 egta insight RAM EDITION 2

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chapter 01:
AN OVERVIEW OF
EXISTING Radio
Audience Measurement
METHODOLOGIES
IN EUROPE
Radio Audience Measurement (RAM), in one form
or another, is carried out in almost every European
country, and has long provided the independent
and audited data on which radio advertising has
been traded. Unlike other electronic media, such
as television and online, the methodologies used
to measure radio differ quite widely between
countries.
Radio is a highly mobile broadcast medium which
as a consequence makes audience measurement
methodologies its biggest challenge – whilst TV
viewing is now extending beyond the living room
screen, a large proportion of television is still
watched on one or more devices in the home.
In contrast, mobile forms of media do not rely
on broadcast technology and therefore can be
measured with a census or device based approach.
Radio consumption typically takes place on various
different locations in the home, in the car or on
public transport, at work, on the go, etc. Another
challenge associated with the multiplatform habits
of radio consumption is the fact that it may take
place through an FM, AM or DAB+ (terrestrial)
signal, or the audio may be delivered via a
connected IP device.
This report focuses on the measurement of
broadcast radio brands, whether by analogue,
digital transmission or online. egta has also
published a separate report focusing on the
measurement methods that are being developed
for online audio. In summary, sample-based
and census-level measurement techniques are
being deployed to measure online audio listening,
and each of these has certain capabilities and
limitations. Sample-based measurement can
provide unduplicated estimates of reach and
frequency, with demographic and geographic
information appended, although such methods
decrease in accuracy for small and niche
publishers. Census-level measurement provides
accurate data on total usage in terms of contacts
and user interactions, but additional techniques
are needed in order to provide demographic or
other forms of information about listeners. Hybrid
methodologies are currently being developed
that combine sample and census measurement
in order to deliver the next generation of audio
audience measurement. You can read more about
the developments in online audio measurement
here
// M a i n m e t h o d o l o g i e s
i n p l a c e
Radio is measured by two primary means:
firstly, asking people to actively remember or
record their listening behaviour over a period
of time (declarative); and secondly, by the use
of technology that passively detects any audio
in the vicinity of the individual being measured
(electronic/ passive). Figure 01 gives an overview of
the primary methods in place in Europe.
The former set of methodologies are by far the
most commonly employed throughout Europe,
accounting for about four-fifths of countries,
and these can be broadly classified as Day-After
Recall (DAR) and Diaries. A variety of recall data
collection methods are used, the predominant one
being Computer Aided Telephone Interviews (CATI).
Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI), in
which the data is collected online, Paper And Pencil
Interviewing (PAPI) and face-to-face interviews
are used in a few cases. Diaries have traditionally
been paper formats, filled in by panellists, and
more recently some markets have moved to