Previous Page  3 / 20 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 3 / 20 Next Page
Page Background

Page 3

© Copyright egta 2015. All rights reserved.

der the name adMeter, and this is being trialled as

a single source measurement device for radio, TV

and Internet.

/ / Audio-matching and water-

marking

Electronic audio measurement meters use two

primary technologies to register the content that

they are exposed to: audio-matching and water-

marking.

Devices that use audio-matching record and com-

press samples of the ambient sound several times

each minute, and effectively create digital finger-

prints that can then be matched against stored re-

cordings of the original radio broadcasts. This so-

lution does not require radio broadcasters to have

any additional studio equipment to insert a signal

into the audio stream. However, if two or more ra-

dio stations are playing the same content at the

same time, for instance a syndicated chart show

or simulcast news bulletin, audio-matching meters

cannot identify which station is responsible for the

broadcast. Likewise, they are unable to identify the

radio platform being used, for instance FM, DAB+,

digital terrestrial television, etc. The GfK Telecon-

trol Mediawatch and Eurisko Media Monitor both

use audio-matching technology.

Meters that use watermarking, or encoding, pick

up inaudible signals that have been inserted into

radio broadcasts. The information is collected by

the device, which reports back the station identifi-

cation and the date and tune in/out times of listen-

ing to the measurement company. Watermarking

also allows different broadcast platforms to be

identified, as alternate signals can be inserted into

the FM, DAB+ streams, etc. For all its advantages,

watermarking requires all measured radio stations

to insert the watermarking signal into the broad-

cast, which entails additional costs. Watermarking

is used in the Nielsen (formerly Arbitron) PPM, and

there has been criticism of the effectiveness of the

nology that passively detects any audio in the vi-

cinity of the individual being measured (electronic/

passive). Figure 01 gives an overview of the pri-

mary 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 collec-

tion methods are used, the predominant one being

Computer Aided Telephone Interviews (CATI). Com-

puter Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI), in which

the data is collected online, Paper And Pencil In-

terviewing (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 introduce

online diaries, for example in the UK and the Neth-

erlands – where 88% of participants use an online

diary (2014 data). The Netherlands is also trialling

mobile diaries.

Electronic measurement was first developed in

Switzerland with the 2001 introduction of the GfK

Telecontrol Mediawatch. This was followed by Ar-

bitron’s Portable People Meter (PPM), which was

tested in the UK in the late 1990s and introduced

to larger markets in the US in 2007. The PPM

methodology has proven to be the most widely

adopted electronic radio audience measurement

platform, and it is currently in use for the trading

currency in Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Kazakh-

stan, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and the US. The

French research organisation Médiamétrie has de-

veloped a similar meter, called RateOnAir, and GfK

Eurisko deployed its Eurisko Media Monitor device

in Italy until 2013. A third type of passive measure-

ment technology has emerged in recent years, us-

ing smartphone software applications (apps). Ipsos

lead the way in this field, developing the MediaCell,

and this has been used in a hybrid solution on the

Italian market. The Czech research company ME-

DIAN has also developed a similar technology, un-