Local Stations Raise Measurement Questions

Michael Hedges January 27, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Every measurement service hears the same thing from broadcasters. When ratings are up, credit the brilliant programming. When they’re down, blame the measurement. But even with good ratings some broadcasters are questioning the methods.

When French broadcast measurement institute Médiamétrie released September-December Ile-de-France (IDF - Greater Paris) audience figures (January 25) one quite obvious development was growth for local stations. The aggregated market share for local station rose to 20% from 18.5% year on year. Nine out of the 14 rated local IDF stations showed market share increases while 12 of the 20 national channels, public and private, decreased. Overall market reach increased to 80.0% from 77.9% one year on.

The highest rated IDF local station was FIP, ranked 12th over all among persons 13 years and older. A year earlier the rather eclectic channel from public broadcaster Radio France ranked 16th, still the highest rated local station. Certainly FIP benefits from rather robust distribution on FM.

As in the whole of France RTL is the top rated national channel, although its IDF markets share dropped to 12.6% from 13.9% year on year. Europe 1 and France Inter tied for 2nd place, 9.6%. Both lost market share; Europe 1 falling from 10.0% and France Inter from 10.4%. Business and sports talk channel RMC posted a very significant gain to 6.3% from 5.2%.

Rap and rock channel Skyrock held 5th ranking, dropping to 4.7% market share from 5.0% one year on. Rolling news France Info and Radio Classique tied for 6th place. France Info dropped to 4.2% market share from 5.0% one year on. Radio Classique, the private classical music channel, posted the biggest market share increase of any channel, to 4.2% market share from 2.6% year on year.

Hit music national channel NRJ ranked 8th with solid growth to 3.9% market share from 3.0% one year on. NRJ’s French national market share also gained significantly in the winter ratings period. (See article on French national radio audience here) The only other national channel to gain market share was easy listening RFM.

After that, local stations FIP, Radio Latina, Oui FM, Voltage and Tropiques FM all beat national channel Virgin Radio, Oui FM and Tropiques FM increasing significantly. (See IDF radio audience trend chart here)

But it was an open letter from Oui FM and Radio FG managers to Médiamétrie, obtained by Le Figaro (January 26), that brought up a long festering question. At a time when an overwhelming number of people can only be reached by mobile phone, asked Antoine Baduel (Radio FG) and Emmanuel Rials (Oui FM), why is the radio survey sample overwhelmingly selected among people with landlines?

“Mainly mobile, listeners likely listen to the radio in cars, on phones, computers and FM,” the observed. “Médiamétrie has not yet adapted its survey methods,” they complained, adding that the research supplier is “negligent.”

“Are people attached to their homes on landlines a true reflection of current demographics or only the most sedentary, the easiest to reach?,” they asked.

It’s a fair question and one all measurement services have wrestled with since sampling rates fell as mobile phone penetration rose. Low sample rates – the number of attempts for each successful interview – also affect costs to the ratings suppliers. And, then, there are the questions about which potential listeners are never part of a sample.

A decade ago one solution, more or less satisfying, was electronic measurement. Several service providers developed devices and software to measure passively a persons exposure to radio signals. Not solved completely solved was that sampling issue. In the United States, measurement provider Arbitron, developer of its Personal People Meter (PPM), has faced legal action from broadcasters and others as well as accreditation delays. Broadcasters in the biggest European markets – the UK, France and Germany – put electronic measurement on hold because of cost.

But with the dramatic rise of persons no longer connected to landlines, measurement costs will continue to rise. And there are no cheap and easy solutions.

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