In-audible ratings watch

For years the number of people listening to radio has been measured by a small group of people filling in a diary.

Stories tell us that these diaries are usually filled out in hast as the Rajar person knocks on the door - so not overly accurate - but it’s all radio has right now.

However for the last few years Rajar and the ever expanding radio industry has been playing with technology in the hope of making the measurement more accurate.

The latest method to come out seems pretty interesting to me, although automatically skews in favour of the commercial, wallpaper stations.

Rajar are teaming up with Barb (TV Ratings in the UK) to test whether electronic measurement of radio audiences would work. The test is happening in the South East of England first and just with adults.

Basically 500 people will be given a personal, portable meter that is apparently about the same size as a pager that will record their listening habits.

Apparently there is a sound code broadcast by every radio station in the UK that can’t be heard by humans but can by this meter.

The idea is that when the radio is within ear shot of this pager (and its wearer) the radio station broadcasting it, the method of delivery (DAB, FM, DTV, web) and the duration will be measured and stored.

The panel of 500 will start wearing their meters in January 2007 and the trial will run for two years (when they will probably go back to pen and paper because its cheaper).

The reason Barb are working with Rajar on this is because they hope it will help them understand the potential for portable meters for TV ratings.

This is because they think more and more people will start watching TV on mobile devices, in cars (Top Gear) or while on public transport.

The problem I’ve got with this concept of portable meters that automatically measure a station if someone is within ear shot is that it favours the big commercial stations.

Virgin, for example, could heavily increase their numbers by getting their station played out across the country in a major clothes shop (say Top Shop for example).

Young women and more and more young men, spend hours in a shop looking for clothes that they probably won’t buy - all the time their little pager would be picking up Virgin and registering hours of extra listener time (I think each panellist counts as 1000 listeners) even though that person is really shopping and not listening to the radio.

It would open a whole new market and revenue stream for shops, in signing deals with radio stations to broadcast their output all day.

Imagine how much Tesco could get from a radio station in return for broadcasting their output - it could even lead to tesco launching a radio station that would then become a major player in the world of commercial radio even though you can only hear it in Tesco stores.

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