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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-