Nielsen Media Research has begun briefing media and advertising agencies about the company’s proposal for watch metering of Australian radio audiences.

In demonstrations held in Sydney this week the company went into more detail about the watch meters than it had time to do at the Commercial Radio conference last week.

The demonstrations showed how the ‘swatch’ worked in gathering data then datamatching and downloading it into a computer for analysis.

Graphs and data from Switzerland, where the watches are in use in the market, demonstrated the viability of the system and revealed some interesting trends:

* Talk stations may benefit from the new system because it can more accurately measure spikes in listening that are less than 15 minutes. Talk stations generally peak at news times, but this cannot always be seen with the diary measurement system.

* Weekly reach for radio is much higher than is being measured with more traditional audience measurement methods. With the old face to face interviews method in Switzerland listening was 71.5%. With the ‘swatch’ meter it is 91.5%.

* Measured with the watch, listening was 56% at home, 23% in the car, 19% at work and 2% in other locations.

* Agencies want increased accountability and are asking “who is exposed to radio.” Metering will be able to answer these issues.

* Afternoon shifts rated higher with the ‘swatch’ meter – perhaps because people listening at work or in shopping centres do not know which station they are listening to and are not able to recall it for a diary or interviewer. Never the less they were listening to it and the ‘swatch’ can measure that where old methods cannot.

The commercial radio industry is soon to decide on the result of its tender for the next radio ratings period, which may decide to begin electronic measurement of listening habits. Nielsen Media Research are competing with Arbitron for the tender.