Italy implements a passive audience measurement with Ipsos

http://www.offremedia.com/voir-article/litalie-met-en-place-une-mesure-passive-de-laudience-radio-avec-ipsos/newsletter_id=164300/

http://fr.slideshare.net/TamaraSilina/my-concern-about-media-audience-measurements-tamara-silina-feb-17th-2013

My concern about media audience measurements Tamara Silina, February 2013

Audience measurement : What it will confront

The resistance of major media who do not want change or as late as possible the measurement systems which favor them for the audience today. The resistance of some institutes in place: A presently available device of audience measurement is a very important part of sales of some institutes. Their leaders wish to continue this activity, and for this, avoid that it evolves in a way they cannot control or would be less profitable. Organizations and professional group’s misfits: New solutions may not be supported by professional groups as they are currently organized by media type and by country. The new structure is likely to form around the new reference unit: The target advertising. The incompetence: A small part of responsibility has a global vision of the situation and real needs. Some do not have the skills to diagnose and pertinent others, faced with ambiguity of the situation, prefer the status quo "pending to see more clearly." From denial: some policymakers who have the information to understand the strategic situation can not admit the threats they involve or wish to hide them, as they did before the decision makers in other sectors (telecom, micro computer disk ...). The stereotype of consensus: it is a phase often emitted by professionals sectors who would shudder in other environments: "The current system is certainly very imperfect, but it is consensus." For some actors, the need for a common rule of a flat consensus is more important than the concerns of the right strategy, quality and efficiency. Preference for ambiguity on the part of some actors: some space buyers and sellers prefer that the quality of their services could not be evaluated rigorously and easily because they are aware of the limits of their effectiveness and, for some of them, because their practices are not for the benefit of their clients. The weight of politics, sometimes: Some institutes in some countries have provided in the past, the data which had been skewed for political reasons. The attempt to impose the watermarking: when the need for change will be binding on institutions, they will highlight the systems which benefit them in their power relations with the media.

How to start for reliable audience measurement ?

These new devices do not easily be born from existing organizations, for reasons already noted. They probably will be born in small professional environments (business clubs, sectoral committees, clubs ...) or in new countries where these structures are still in training and where the issues are too low for large institutions, or to initiative of trans-national media. Once they begin to operate, even for small applications, they may trigger an awareness and questioning will be generalized and can be brutal.

What is ideally my audience measurement system?

My vision of the ideal concept today for my radio, covers an enlarged market to my real territories (linguistics, technical, geographical ...). This market will be segmented by target advertising and editorial. It would include a market mechanism for (purchase and sale), powered by an integrated ... Data cross media audience, reliable, targeted, continuous, available in real time, including audience share of all stations likely to compete with me (so no use of watermarking). Sold data space and the advertising coverage, they also cross-media, available in real-time and instantly integrated to the data audience. Structured data and detailed information on the programs broadcast. The tools to assist decision making for both buyers space (optimization plans and impact assessment) and sellers (optimizing rates). It would be true of all technical checks by professionals such as Veritas or large international audit firms.

What say the Professionals for audience measurement?

The system which will replace those currently in place is already quite clearly outlined by the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement. It should ideally be measured by the same source (single source) and real-time television audience and all radio channels, Internet and social networks, the press and the outdoors advertising. It will be based on data from the advertising, also available in real time. It should be exploitable across applications which support decision-making of a new generation, especially to automatically update diffusion plans but also for the media, updating the pricing space depending on their audience and demand. It will provide easily articulate on tools for measuring advertising effectiveness.

Audience measurement : What the theory says?

"Policy makers prefer alternatives with less uncertainty. This is information that reduces uncertainty. So buyers opt easier for offers supported by the latest information, most relevant, most exhaustive, most reliable, most continuous and in larger quantities. C. Shannon (1948) "A Mathematical Theory of Decisions and Communications." Conversely, buyers of advertising space in traditional media under invest because the offer is addressed to them is not supported by information whose relevance is limited, incoherent between types of media that is not new, which is discontinuous and in limited quantities. Audience measurement systems of these media and methods of buying and selling space that accompany them are handicaps for the economic development of the media and they reduce their resistance to new competition. It would be necessary to change that.