Audience measurement calculates how many people are in an audience , usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership , but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic . The term is sometimes used with regard to practices that help broadcasters and advertisers determine who is listening, rather than how many people are listening. In some parts of the world, the resulting numbers are referred to as audience share ; in other places, the broader term market share is used. This broader meaning is also known as audience research . Measurements are broken down by media market , which corresponds to large and small metropolitan areas .
38-629: OzTAM is an Australian audience measurement research firm that collects and markets television ratings data. It is jointly and equally owned by the Seven Network ( Seven West Media ), the Nine Network ( Nine Entertainment ) and Network 10 ( Paramount ANZ ), and is the official source of television ratings data for all metropolitan television in Sydney , Melbourne , Brisbane , Adelaide , and Perth , as well as subscription services (such as Foxtel ) on
76-427: A campaign is the percentage of viewers multiplied by the average number of ads viewed. Net reach is the total of all audiences exposed to a vehicle, excluding duplicate viewership. Standard audience surveys collect data on audience size and basic demographics. Audience quality is inferred from an audience's demographic profile, but do not measure audience engagement. Audience-research methods were questioned during
114-468: A diverse range of different platforms. Audiences often use several media at the same time; a teenager might be plugged into a radio with earphones while working on the Internet, where they are scanning online newspapers and magazines. Media research companies were poorly equipped for the challenge of simultaneous consumption across several platforms, but is slowly adapting. Data collected by people meters
152-1398: A media device. MediaWiki software can be equipped with the HitCounters extension as a form of audience measurement and determining wikiFactor , a rough measurement of a wiki website's popularity. With the increased popularity of webinars and video conferencing due to the remote work requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic , a set of direct and anonymous audience engagement tools such as Mentimeter and Actymeter became popular. Nielsen//NetRatings measures Internet and digital media audiences with telephone and Internet surveys. Nielsen BuzzMetrics measures consumer-generated media . Other companies collecting information on Internet use include comScore , Wakoopa, and Hitwise , which measure hits on Internet pages. Visible Measures focuses on measuring online video consumption and distribution across all video advertising and content. GfK 's Cross Media Measurement Solutions measures offline sales after TV, Internet, and mobile exposure. Sightcorp, TruMedia, Quividi, relEYEble, stickyPiXEL, Cognitec, goCount and CognoVision provide real-time audience data, including size, attention span and demographics , using video analytics to detect, track and classify viewers of digital displays . Networked Insights measures online audiences, and released
190-408: A multisignal context, with new content in front of technological convergence, the correct representation of viewing behaviors faces methodological challenges. New methodologies (audio or video matching, water marketing) are needed to measure digital television audiences. Measurement with audimeters faces the dual challenges of analog and digital measurement in a mixed television broadcast. Because of
228-463: A national basis. OzTAM was created in 1999 after the Seven and Ten Networks led a call for a re-tendering of the contract to provide audience ratings. Executives from both networks were concerned that the previous ratings service did not accurately reflect viewing levels for their channels. Prior to OzTAM, the dominant metropolitan ratings company was Nielsen Media Research . The two companies competed for
266-502: A radio sample will accurately record their listening at 15-minute intervals has been challenged. Surveying listeners for preferences has been criticised as inflexible. Listeners complain that radio lacks variety and depth, but measurement methods facilitate further refinement of already-minutely-programmed formats rather than an overhaul. In the US, listeners hear old favorites rather than new music. Data obtained by some audience-measurement methods
304-402: A ratings point for the key 18- to 49-year-old demographic is equivalent to one percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds in the country. A Rtg or TVR differs from a share point in being the percentage of all households; a share point is one percent of all households watching television at the time. The share of a broadcast is often significantly higher than the rating, especially when overall TV viewing
342-527: A report ranking television shows by social-media interaction. According to the study, half of the shows on Networked Insights' top-10 list did not appear on the Nielsen Media Research (NMR) list. The demographic of a show's audience is also measured, and is often notated in abbreviated form: A ratings point is a measure of viewership of a television show. One television ratings point (Rtg or TVR) represents one percent of television households in
380-879: A short time, before Nielsen pulled out. Nielsen continues to be active in some regional areas. There are ten official survey periods, of four weeks each, covering 40 weeks of the year, excluding 2 weeks over Easter and 10 weeks over summer. In total, OzTAM measures ratings from 3,500 homes, with 950 homes in Sydney , 900 in Melbourne , 650 in Brisbane and 500 each in Adelaide and Perth , with these ratings commonly referred to as 'five city metro ratings'. A further 2,000 homes outside these five cities are measured by Regional TAM, and an additional 1,200 homes monitor viewing of subscription television in Australia . Nielsen are contracted to provide
418-492: Is TNS , which is active in 34 countries around the globe. Originally, these meters identified the frequency of the channels - VHF or UHF - watched on the viewer's TV set. This system became obsolete when Direct to Home ( DTH ) satellite dish became popular and viewers started to get their own satellite decoders. In addition, this system doesn't measure digital broadcasts. Before the People Meter advances, Nielsen used
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#1732851978072456-459: Is available the morning after programs have aired, but data collected in diaries requires more time to analyse. Radio surveys, still used for radio ratings in a number of countries, are normally available quarterly. The time lag in reporting fails to give advertisers sufficient lead time to take corrective action during a campaign. Other questions have been raised about diary-based data-collection methods. The expectation that diarists participating in
494-411: Is based on the development of audience-metering technology to deal with the challenges in measuring the viewing behavior of consumer households across several platforms (TV, Internet, mobile devices). A/P meters would be replaced by GTAM meters, which were expected to use a combination of active and passive measurement technologies. Unlike A/P meters, however, they would not require a physical connection to
532-454: Is detailed for individual songs and how they are reacted to by each age, racial, and economic group the station seeks to attract. This approach leads to recognizable songs (such as those by the Beatles ) which score well with a cross-section of listeners. In most countries, the advertising industry endorses a media-research company as its provider of audience measurement. The methodology used by
570-493: Is hooked up to each television set and is accompanied by a remote control unit. Each family member in a sample household is assigned a personal 'viewing button'. It identifies each household member's age and sex. If the TV is turned on and the viewer doesn't identify themselves, the meter flashes to remind them. Additional buttons on the People Meter enable guests to participate in the sample by recording their age, sex and viewing status into
608-452: Is low. A low share may lead to the cancellation of a TV program. Gross rating points (GRPs) or target rating points (TRPs) are chiefly used to measure the performance of TV-based advertising campaigns, and are the sum of the TVRs of each commercial spot of the campaign. An ad campaign might require a certain number of GRPs in a particular demographic for the duration of the campaign. The GRP of
646-410: Is used and the cost of data collection. All methods involve sampling : taking a representative sample of the population, recording media use, and extrapolating it to the general population. People Meter A people meter is an audience measurement tool used to measure the viewing habits of TV and cable audiences. The People Meter is a 'box', about the size of a paperback book. The box
684-655: The 1990s with the arrival of new media , particularly digital media, and changes in public media habits. People meters , which recorded household viewing by noting the station to which a TV was tuned, failed to capture new viewing habits such as recording programs for playback at a later time or watching a podcast or download on a device such as a tablet or computer. Video on Demand (VoD) enables consumers to decide when to watch programs, and smartphones enable consumers to choose where to access content. Media research companies have been forced to devise new methodologies capable of tracking new and unprecedented viewing habits across
722-448: The Internet, many businesses can sell outside their local markets. This helps them offer niche items that would face challenges in finding customers in their specific market area . In the Journal of Advertising Research , Chris Anderson writes: "For some internet-based businesses, locality no longer regulates the market." Offered wider choices, consumers award fewer of their "votes" to
760-451: The LPM more accurately reported the full range of programming watched, including channel-surfing. Arbitron 's Portable People Meter uses a microphone to pick up and record subaudible tones embedded in broadcasts by an encoder on each station or network , and has been used to track in-store radio . The introduction of digital terrestrial television (DTT) complicates audience measurement. In
798-572: The U.S. market executing similar technology, Nielsen felt the need to compete. Nielsen made a substantial technological advance before network-era norms entered crisis with transition to the national People Meter sample in 1987. Although People Meters presented substantial improvements over the previous system, the alteration in audience measurement caused significant controversy. The method change costs stations whose audience had been overestimated. The networks firmly disagreed; they pointed out that certain demographics such as young children could not operate
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#1732851978072836-489: The audience measurement services to both OzTAM and Regional TAM having previously operated their own measurement service. The Nine Network , traditionally the ratings leader in Australia for many years, carried over its dominance into the OzTam era, winning six consecutive ratings seasons between 2001 and 2006 inclusive. Between 2007 and 2018 inclusive, it dropped to second position behind the Seven Network , before again reclaiming
874-476: The audience. According to Lotz, the Nielsen sample included approximately 1,700 audimeter homes and a rotating panel of approximately 850 diary respondents. Nielsen was the controlling factor of audience measurement for national network television. Networks blamed Nielsen for inaccurate rating measurements in the mid-2000s, and the company implemented its automated Local People Meter (LPM) technology. The LPM marked
912-588: The automated LPM system. "Nielsen introduced the LPM as evidence of the rupturing of the network-era business model became broadly apparent, and apprehension about the future of the industry erupted on all sectors. LPM’s more accurately reported full range of what programming viewers watched, including what was observed when channel surfing, in comparison to the diary method it replaced. It allowed Nielsen to maintain established measurement practices, but do them better”. “While Nielsen’s LPM’s presented next-day demographic analyses on television viewership in major cities,
950-404: The big hits and more to specialized niche choices. According to Anderson, people always wanted more choices but their desires were obscured by distribution bottlenecks imposed by cost or locality. New digital technology initially complicated in-home measurement systems. The DVR seemed incompatible with a Nielsen box, which was designed to measure the frequency of a television signal to ascertain
988-852: The channel being viewed. Since a DVR always produces the same frequency, an active-passive (A/P) meter could be developed to read audio tracks of a particular program instead of the frequency of the television signal. Other challenges to the industry were digital cable , the Internet , and viewing devices other than televisions. As new ways of measurement became available and users could be monitored for content and use, concern arose that sampling techniques might become obsolete. The increasing fragmentation of viewing with different technologies posed difficulties in reporting viewer numbers for content. Nielsen began rolling out its "anytime anywhere media measurement" initiative in 2010, which includes DVR views in its television figures. GTAM (Global Television Audience Metering)
1026-508: The devices led to accusations of undercounting minorities. A lot of controversy surrounding LPM’s was driven by News Corporation-funded “Don’t Count Us Out” alliance, which exploited activists’ and legislators’ foreseeable mindless reactions to any suggestion of racism” (Lowry, 2004). Today there are new systems such as the Portable People Meter and 'Picture Matching' measuring the viewing habits of TV audiences. In an effort to improve
1064-559: The diary method, it might also be the new variety of channels for viewers to choose from. Viewers may not be able to record everything they watch and there is no way of discovering the truth. Finally in 1986, Nielsen developed an electronic meter, People Meter, to solve the problem. The People Meter is an electronic method of television measurement that moved from active and diary-based to passive and meter-monitored. The meter also recorded real time simultaneously viewing, reducing memory bias. Because Audits of Great Britain (AGB) had just entered
1102-419: The diary method, which consisted of viewers physically recording the shows they watched. However, there were setbacks with the system. Lower-rated stations claimed the diary method was inaccurate and biased. They argued that because they had lower ratings, those who depended on memory for the diary method may only remember to track their favorite shows. Stations also argued that if it wasn't low ratings that skewed
1140-467: The mantle as the most-watched television network in Australia in 2019. In 2017, the metropolitan homes measured will increase to 5,250, Regional TAM homes will increase to over 3,000 and subscription viewing homes to 2,120. Additionally, OzTAM's renewed its contract with Nielsen as a sub-contractor through until 2020. This Australian television-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Audience measurement The diary
1178-729: The people meter accurately, thus underestimating the number of children watching a particular program. The end of the multi-channel transition was in large part due to the continuous changes in technology and distribution. Nielsen was at a disadvantage as their measuring techniques required burdensome adjustments. Luckily for Nielsen, the advances in advertising strategies, distribution windows, and ways people were using television made industry sectors interested in data about viewing behavior. Along with changing their counting methods, Nielsen also started emphasizing their sample in 2003 in reaction to census shifts and requests from some industry sectors. Nielsen's automated Local People Meter (LPM) technology
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1216-587: The provider becomes known as the "industry currency" for audience measurement. Industry members fund audience research and share the findings. In a few countries where the industry is fragmented or where there is no industry association, two or more competing organisations may provide audience measurement services; such countries are said to have no industry currency. Four methods of data collection are used to survey broadcast audiences: interviews, diaries, meters, and scanning and modelling. Research companies use different methodologies, depending on where (and when) media
1254-401: The shift from active, diary-based local measurement to passive, meter-monitored measurement of local markets. Technologically, the LPM is similar to the original Nielsen People Meter; the key advance was that the LPM provided accurate measurements of local markets. The LPM system has allowed the industry to measure year-round, rather than the quarterly "sweeps" periods. Researchers believed that
1292-464: The surveyed area in a given minute. In 2004, there were an estimated 109.6 million television households in the United States; one national ratings point represented 1,096,000 households for the 2004–05 season. When used for a broadcast program, the average rating for the duration of the show is typically given. Ratings points are often used for specific demographics, rather than households. For example,
1330-449: The system. Another version of the device is small, about the size of a beeper, that plugs into the wall below or near each TV set in household. It monitors anything that comes on the TV and relays the information with the small Portable People Meter to narrow down who is watching what and when. The device, known as a 'frequency-based meter', was invented by a British company called Audits of Great Britain (AGB). The successor company to AGB
1368-580: The value of such acquisitions. According to The Television Will Be Revolutionized , Amanda D. Lotz writes that during the 1960s and 1970s, Nielsen introduced the Storage Instantaneous Audimeter, a device that sent daily viewing information to the company's computers using phone lines and made national daily ratings available by 1973. Although the audimeters did not supply sufficient information about audience demographics , it allowed Nielsen to establish diary reports that presented insight into
1406-520: Was introduced in New York and Los Angeles. The LPM improved the method of measurement from active and diary-based to passive and meter-monitored. More importantly, the LPM provides accurate measurements to particular local markets, verse a nationwide sample from the People meter. While diary-based surveys concentrated on quarterly “sweeps” periods, the industry has been pushed towards year-round measurement, due to
1444-631: Was one of the first methods of recording information. However, this is prone to mistakes , forgetfulness and subjectivity. Data is collected down to the level of listener opinion of individual songs cross-referenced against age, race, and economic status in listening sessions sponsored by oldies- and mix-formatted stations. IBOPE was the first real-time service for audience measurement in the world, beginning in São Paulo in 1942. The audience measurement of U.S. television has relied on sampling to obtain estimated audience sizes in which advertisers determine
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