New data science is currently underway for Radio360 to continue to develop the role of its wearable meter data as part of the commercial radio industry’s measurement system.
Radio 360 currently integrates data from three different sources into one currency, including surveys completed by listeners in geographically and demographically representative households.
As well as measuring streaming listening over millions of connected devices, with data taken directly from radio station websites, listening apps and server logs, a 2,000-person panel of respondents also wear the GfK MediaWatch that automatically captures information on radio listening when the wearer is in hearing range of a radio station.
Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) head of research, John Musgrove, said the industry body knows that survey diaries (both electronic and paper) are still the best measurement tool to capture all listening, but it's also looking at how more granular panel data can be brought into the ratings on a day-to-day basis.
Media personality, former radio presenter and podcaster Abbie Chatfield recently took to TikTok to say that “there's no way giving random pamphlets to random people, most of which probably don't even listen to radio, gives an accurate representation of who's listening to what, if anything".
Musgrove said that a quick Google search reveals some of the claims that Chatfield made are wrong.
“This is a world leading ratings technology that moves well beyond the paper diary that [her] TikTok was very focused on and brings the industry into the digital era,” he said.
“It’s a validation to us that CRA and GfK are being invited to present Radio360 to global media and research conferences given its innovative hybrid approach.”
Musgrove said that GfK has a “rigorous ratings system” in place, which draws on data collected from 50,000 respondents annually across the five capital cities and over 60,000 when including the main regional markets, as well as the digital data and the GfK MediaWatch.
“It's not just paper diaries; indeed, this is just 20% of the survey, [with 80% being digital]” he said.
“New respondents are included in the surveys every week ensuring a constant refreshing of the data included. The sample used is also controlled both by region, age, and gender, ensuring it represents the population that it is reporting on.”
Chatfield - who previously hosted her own national radio show on the SCA’s Hit Network between January 2022 and August 2023 and is a contender in the upcoming ACRA Awards with It’s A Lot with Abbie Chatfield, a podcast represented by and distributed via SCA's LiSTNR - also said “if you’re asking someone to fill out a rating sheet for radio and they never listen to radio, they're probably going to feel too awkward to put it back with nothing in it”
“I would; I’d be like ‘oh I better at least lie in some way’,” she said.
Musgrove said that GfK has people put in nil listening for radio consumption "all the time”.
“We are not measuring the radio listening population. We measure the whole population,” he said.
“We do not include or exclude anyone based on their listening behaviour and regularly capture people who report not listening. This illustrates the rigour and breadth of the system.”
As to the accuracy of the ratings, Musgrove said that what’s in place is “world leading measurement using a hybrid system” with full external auditing in place.
“We also minimise the impact of a single marketing event by using long periods of time ‘in survey’ and averaging weeks to reduce the impact,” he said.
“For example, if a survey ran for four weeks, the stations could heavily influence the audience by running marketing and promotions for that period – this is why this practice stopped decades ago in Australia.
“The GfK Radio360 system is in survey for 41 weeks of the year and employs a rolling survey methodology where 6 to 10 weeks of data is rolled at any one time (6 weeks for Survey 1, 8 weeks for Survey 2 and 10 weeks for the rest of the Surveys) this smooths out any impact that one off marketing and promotional events may have.”
In June 2023, Radio 360 went live, with phase one delivering total, broadcast and streaming audience figures for each radio station across the five major metro markets.
The second phase integrated podcast metrics to provide a deduplicated view of radio and podcast audiences as well as the release of special reports based on real-time monitoring.
The system also provides the capability to measure listening spikes based around special events and breaking news, on top of the existing eight radio surveys per year.
Commercial radio’s share of listening recently climbed to 75.1%, not only surpassing last survey’s record but also marking the highest level since 2014.
GfK Survey 6 showed commercial radio reaches 12.3 million weekly listeners, with average time spent listening holding steady at 12 hours and 51 minutes.
Advertisers are responding positively too, with podcast and streaming audio advertising expenditure increasing 23.6% to $290 million in the year to June.
Total online audio advertising is the fastest growing display category, according to the Australian Internet Advertising Revenue Report, compiled by PwC and released by IAB Australia.
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