Numeris has announced a massive change to the ratings system for Canadian radio.
Ninety-five Small and Medium markets, including Red Deer, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Halifax, which still rely on diary results, will move to year-round measurement as of this summer. The result will see audience data releases reflect a rolling average. Data will be collected over 24 weeks, essentially every other week, excluding the last two weeks of December and first two weeks in January, during a 12-month period and reported in the Fall and Spring.
The move comes following consistent recruitment challenges in recent years to achieve sufficient sample levels, created in part by the shift to mobile-only households (currently 40 per cent and projected to reach 50 per cent by 2020), and the public’s increasing reluctance to participate in consumer surveys.
Those issues came to a head in Spring 2018 when Numeris had to suppress ratings results for five television and 10 radio markets, including Saint John, NB; Kingston; Windsor; Regina; Saskatoon; Lethbridge; Red Deer; Kelowna; Kamloops and Prince George.
Diary households harder to find
Ross Davies, director of Member Engagement, Radio, said Numeris call centres make roughly 50,000 calls a day, but diary recruitment has become an uphill battle.
“A number of years ago, it might have taken Numeris or BBM [Bureau of Broadcast Measurement] five or six dials to get someone to participate or just pick up the phone…it’s now taking upwards of 17 calls just to reach a household,” Davies told Broadcast Dialogue.
Read the rest of the story HERE at the Broadcast Dialogue website
The Numeris diary process had become cumbersome. Not to mention invasive. The 20+ pages of consumer information ahead of the radio pages was invasive and frankly not worth the $5 bill tucked inside the diaries.
Who has the time, energy and motivation to answer a marketing call which really serves no value to the consumer.