Audience measurement

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Audience measurement is any method of measuring how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership. It often also includes demographic and sometimes psychographic information, to help broadcasters determine who is listening, rather than just how many. This broader meaning is called audience research.

Measurements are broken-down by media market, which for the most part corresponds to metropolitan areas, both large and small.

1 Methods
- 1.1 Diaries
- 1.2 Electronic
2 New media
3 Criticisms
4 Companies

The diary was the first and until recently the only method of recording information. However, this is prone to mistakes and forgetfulness, as well as subjectivity.

More recently, technology has been used to track listening and viewing habits. Arbitron's Portable People Meter uses a microphone to pickup and record subaudible tones embedded in broadcasts by an encoder at each station or network. It has even been used to track in-store radio.

Nielsen//NetRatings, measures Internet and digital media audiences through a telephone and Internet survey. Nielsen BuzzMetrics measures consumer-generated media. Nielsen also conducts market research for the film industry through National Research Group (NRG). TruMedia provides real-time audience data including size, attention span and demographics by using Video Analytics technology to automatically detect, track and classify viewers watching digital displays.

Diary-based radio ratings in the U.S. may inflate listenership, because it is only measured in 15-minute increments. Listening at any time during a quarter-hour counts as listening for the entire duration, even if the actual time was just for a song or two.

Australian ratings are collected by three main organisations:

OzTAM, for metropolitan areas
Regional TAM, for regional areas seviced by three commercial networks
Nielsen Media Research Australia, for regional areas serviced by two commercial networks

Ratings are collected over 40 weeks of the year, with a two-week break over Easter and 10 weeks over summer.