Research for Programming

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  Research for programming does not exhaust the radio research. But almost
every other kind of research we are doing for a radio station provides
relevant info for programming as well (examples: research on stations
image etc.).
  Before everything else, audience research is crucial for programming,
because it can provide answers to questions that any programme producer/
scheduler has to address all the time:
•  What are the listening habits of the audience? At what time and where do the
people usually listen to the radio? How many are listening by day parts (in the
morning, in drive time, in the evening)? Where are they usually listening to the
radio (at home, at work, while driving, other places)? How much time are they
listening On what kind of distribution channel do they listen? (on air, online, on
mobile phone)?
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Why people listen to the radio? What are their needs? What kind of
programmes do they prefer? How many are interested in news? Who are they?
What kind of news are they interested in (international, national, regional,
local? How many are listening to the radio mostly for music? What kind of
music? How many listeners expect just entertainment from the radio? What
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kind of entertainment?
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For whom is my programme intended? Does it reach that particular audience?
And if it does, is it responding to its need? Is it made in such a way that will
attract the intended audience?
How is performing my programme against those of the competition? Is it
standing? Is it declining?
  It’s certain that audience research is something more meaningful than
audience measurement (ratings). But it’s also certain that ratings are a kind
of audience research that producers and managers need (and afford) in the
first place.
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  A professional system of measuring media audience started as late as in
1998.
  Between 1998-2001 this system has been operated under the name
AUDIMAS under a regime of “free market“ (service offered by a research
company to the clients):
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Multimedia system (TV, radio, press)
Nation-wide panel of households (1000 HH/2500 persons)
Audience diaries
Delivery of data on a weekly base
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  In 2001 we had some important changes in the market:
•  Moving from multi-media measurement services to specialized
systems (people meter for TV, NRS for print press, SAR for radio)
•  Transition of the research supply from a “free market” (own
service) to an “organized market” (JIC, methodological
specifications, public tender, selection of an official provider, single
currency/data on the market, etc.)
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  Uuniverse of the Survey
•  Age: 11 y. o. and over
•  Living in private households from both urban and rural area
•  Universe size: 19.169.422 persons
  Methodology
•  The “Day after recall” method
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The sequences of radio audience are prompted by recalling the
respondent’s main activities during the day before the interview
•  The radio audience is registered by quarters of hour (between 5:00 to
00:59, and by halves of hour between 1:00 to 4:59)
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  Sample size: 26.000 interviews per year (first wave: 10.000 interviews,
representative sample at the national level; second and third wave: 8.000
interviews each wave, representative sample for urban areas).
  Sample design: two strata
•  11 large regions (relatively homogeneous areas, defined through a
cluster analysis)
•  6 categories of cities/towns and 2 categories of rural settlements
(according to their size)
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Nr. settlements in the
sample
Urban > 200 K inhabitants
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Urban 100-200 K inhabitants
14
Urban 50-100 K inhabitants
21
Urban 30-50 K inhabitants
26
Urban 10-30 K inhabitants
45
Urban < 10 K inhabitants
21
Rural < 5000 K inhabitants
68
Rural > 5000 K inhabitants
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TOTAL
238
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  Selection of respondents
  The interviewees are randomly selected from the database of the
National Authority for the Population Evidence (INEP). A list of
addresses is extracted for every locality in the sample, with some
identification marks for the selected persons: date of birth, sex
(names of the persons extracted from the database are not disclosed)
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  Fieldwork Details
•  Two research companies conduct the data collection (equal sized
samples)
•  In home face to face interviews
•  Three waves of interviews per year:
a) 
b) 
c) 
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First wave: January - April
Second wave: May - August
Third wave: September - December
Interviewing period: 46 weeks per year
Research companies design and follow a detailed planning for conducting the
interviews, including a given day for the 1st attempt to contact the persons in
the sample, and specified rules for the next attempts;
The average length of interview: 21 minutes.
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  Number of radio stations reported:
•  13 radio stations/networks (national)
•  24 radio stations (Bucharest)
  Deliveries
•  Calendar: June 2, 2008 (First wave)/ October 6,2008 (Second
wave) / January, 30 2009 (Third wave)
•  Format: on line databases
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  Data processing and analyse: specially designed software licensed to the
clients: MasoR7
  The audience indicators reported::
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Daily Reach / Prime Time Daily Reach (000 and %)
Weekly Reach (000 and %)
Market Share / Prime Time Market Share (%)
Daily Average Quarter Ratings (000 and %)
Daily Average Time Listening (min.)
Reach by time intervals/programmes (000 and %)
Market Shares by time intervals/programmes (%)
Average Quarter Ratings by time intervals/programmes (000 and %)
Average Time Listening by time intervals/programmes (min.)
Demographic profiles
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  Questionnaire
Section I
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Household listening equipment
Awareness of the radio stations
General habits of listening
Radio stations listening by quarters of hour
Section II
  Usage of Personal Computer, Internet, mobile phone
Section III
  Intention of acquisitions by main categories of goods and services for the next
12 months
Section IV
  Socio-Demographics
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  Audience Chart
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  Programme Audience Dynamic Against Competition
MATINAL SHOW
(7:00-10:00)
AQR (000)
AQR Gross Dynamic
TOTAL RADIO
Market Share Dynamic
EUROPA FM
RADIO 21
Oct.07
I 2008
Oct.07
I 2008
Oct.07
I 2008
Oct.07
I 2008
3872,7
3500,4
856,5
776,8
526,1
420,4
387,6
461,1
-9,6
AQR Net Dynamic
Market Share
RRA
100,0
100,0
-9,3
-20,1
19,0
0,3
-10,5
28,6
22,1
0,5
22,2
13,6
-11,8
12,0
10,0
32,0
13,2
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  Programme Demographics Change
MORNING SHOW
TOTAL
RADIO
Oct.
07
Jun.
08
Gender
MORNING SHOW
TOTAL
RADIO
Oct.
07
Jun.
08
Region
- Male
52,3
52,2
51,7
- Transilvania, Banat
31,2
32,9
27,5
- Female
47,7
47,8
48,3
- Moldova
25,4
22,8
27,3
- Muntenia, Dobrogea
32,5
31,3
34,7
- Bucharest
10,9
13,0
10,5
Age
- 11-19 yo
6,7
2,2
2,5
- 20-29 yo
15,5
5,4
5,2
- 30-39 yo
21,7
10,6
11,5
- Rural
39,5
45,4
47,5
- 40-49 yo
17,0
13,3
17,0
- Urban < 50.000
17,3
15,0
17,4
- 50-59 yo
18,0
27,5
23,2
- Over 60 yo
21,0
41,0
40,6
- Urban
50.000-100.000
8,2
6,6
6,3
Average Age
44,4
54,9
54,2
- Urban
100.000-200.000
9,5
7,8
8,2
- Low education
52,8
60,8
62,0
- Urban > 200.000
14,6
12,2
10,1
- High school
31,9
28,6
26,9
- Bucharest
10,9
13,0
10,5
- University
15,3
10,6
11,1
- AB
19,2
17,2
16,5
28,1
17
55,4
Education
Professional status
Residence
ESOMAR Social Grade
- Active
54,7
36,7
40,5
-C
33,5
25,1
- Inactive
45,3
63,3
59,5
- DE
47,3
57,6
RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  General Research Cycle:
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Research Tools for Programming:
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Focus Groups
Strategic Market Survey
Auditorium Music Test (AMT)
Callout Music Test
Perceptual Research
Moderator Tests
Airplay-Analysis
Competitor Analysis
Desk Research
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Focus Groups
•  Qualitative research method helping to explore in depth opinions,
motivations and attitudes of the listeners
•  Focus Groups for programming research: radio formats/concepts
test, programme content tests, station positioning, station image,
station logo/slogan test etc.
•  Example: programme test for Radio Romania Actualitati (2007)
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Strategic Market Survey
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Strategic research tool allowing for special statistical analysis
Representative survey (minimum 600 interviews)
Interval: every second year
Over all description of the radio market
Main areas of interest:
-  Perceptual Analysis
-  Content analysis
-  Radio listening
-  Music mapping
-  Music format analysis
•  Example: strategic market study for Radio Romania (November, 2008)
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Music Research for Programming
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Music programming is related to a set of questions that can be answered by
music research:
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What should be the music format/concept of the station taking into account the
audience target?
What music styles should you play?
How does that music styles fit together?
How do you balance the music styles?
What best songs for the target do we play for each music style?
What are the rules for the rotation of these songs?
How many songs should you play in the “active rotation”?
How do you implement the music research results in the music scheduling
(clocks)?
How should the music format or the music scheduling be updated?
How do you gain information about the current songs?
Which song parameters should be used in rotation?
How often do you test your music (AMT, Callout)?
What do we know about our competition music programming?
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Auditorium Music Test
•  100-150 participants (usually P1s) recruited according to certain
characteristics (gender, age, competitive stations)
•  Require special venues (like concert halls etc)
•  Some 400-600 songs are tested (back catalogue)
•  Information: passion, acceptance, burned out songs
•  Additional information: radio listening, perceptual questions etc.
•  Test of the music played by our competitor
•  Interval: 2–4 times per year
•  Example: AMT for Radio Actualitati (recruitment scheme, results)
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Callout Music Test
•  It's almost mandatory for commercial radio stations using particular
formats (CHR)
•  Test current songs (30-35)
•  Results: awareness, acceptance, passion, burned out
•  Interval weekly (or 2-weekly) survey
•  Data collection: CATI interviews
•  Example: Callout Radio 21
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Perceptual Research
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Quantitative research method
Positioning and identification checks
Analysis of image-profiles (station images)
Internal questionnaire for team members (how does the staff describes
the stations self image etc.)
•  CATI/face-to-face
•  Interval: tracking 3 times per year (or included in AMT Music)
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Online Research (Web-Based Surveys)
•  Online surveys through the radio station homepage
•  It is generally admitted that answers to such surveys mostly come
from young P1 listeners
•  Depending on the research objectives, radio stations also need a
feed back from other categories of listeners (like occasional
listeners), so the web-based research should replace the classic
research
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Desk Research: a general research method that can be useful for collecting
all kinds of data:
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Surveys results on different target groups that we are interested in
Surveys results about lifestyles, value orientations etc.
Scouting about the new “upcoming”mega trends
Different kind of statistics (demographics, Internet usage etc)
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Competitor Analysis
•  On going analysis of data about competitors, which is provided by the
virtually all the research methods we may use (Focus Groups, AMT,
Callout, etc.)
•  Focus on our competitors’ image, morning shows, news, music,
moderators, campaigns and promotions, etc.
•  Interval: steady research
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RESEARCH FOR PROGRAMMING
  Airplay Music Analysis
•  Analysis of the our music programming as compared to the main
competitors in the market
•  Observation of the competitors when ever we intend to change our
music strategy
•  Interval: steady and continuous research
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