GfK will move to an online survey for the five major capital city markets while the official radio ratings are on hold due to COVID-19.
CRA commissioned the survey, to be released in June, that will capture industry-level consumer listening data via an online e-diary, and will provide information on how many people listened to radio and key metrics on time, place of listening and demographics.
The survey is one of a schedule of data releases designed to keep the advertising industry informed about audience and listening trends.
CRA chief executive officer, Joan Warner, said “People have continued to rely on radio for information and companionship as their daily routines have changed. We will be releasing a range of data over coming weeks to provide insight into listening behaviour, so agencies and clients can continue to have confidence that radio offers cost-effective audience reach.”
A special GfK report of pre and post COVID-19 listening data, released on April 16, found radio listening had increased by 1 hour and 46 minutes a week to an average of 18 hours during the lockdown period, compared to the weeks immediately preceding the lockdown.
The annual Infinite Dial Australia study will be presented on 20 May via webinar.
Official radio surveys will resume with Survey 6 to be released on Tuesday, 29 September. The release of Survey 7 has been brought forward by one week to 5 November and Survey 8 will now be released on 8 December.
The full list of data releases and release dates is below:
Infinite Dial Australia – Edison Research’s 4th annual study into digital media behaviour. Edison Research president Larry Rosin will present the findings via a webinar at 10.30am AEST on Wednesday, 20 May.
GfK Radio E-Diary Listening Study – GfK survey of radio listening across the five metropolitan radio markets to be released in June.
Digital data – Analysis of listening metrics based on available industry digital data, for example streaming and website data, using GfK’s proprietary SENSIC tag, to be released July/August 2020.
GfK Radio Surveys – Survey 6 will be released on 29 September, Survey 7 on 5 November and Survey 8 on 8 December.
Australian Share of Audio – GfK’s 5th annual study into listening trends across the entire audio landscape will be released and presented via webinar in August.
Australian Podcast Ranker – Top 100 podcasts report and All-Australian Top 100 report compiled by Triton Digital will be released monthly.
Subscribe to the radioinfo daily flash briefing podcast on these platforms: Acast, Apple iTunes Podcasts, Podtail, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, or wherever you get your podcasts.
A survey will be unbiased if the sample is truly random and that sample is truly representative of the population. That is taught in first year university statistics, for example STAT170 at Macquarie University. I know because I taught it there.
Measuring ratings by people just "rocking up" to the GFK website may not be representative of the population. The results may be skewed for the following reasons:
(1) People may have their favourite radio station and will participate.
(2) People may have their non-favourite radio station and want to favour another radio station.
(3) People may not be tech savvy and not participate at all - it affects all demographics.
The above list is not exhaustive with the consequence that the ratings results may not truly reflect the populations' listening habits.
Thank you,
Anthony of thinking Belfield