<font color="#ff0000">Guest Article: </font>Vineet Singh Hukmani: The truth about radio audience measurement

It is fairly clear that radio operators tend to support the study that they are doing better in. So, if one station supports IRS (Indian Readership Survey) and another supports RAM (Radio Audience Measurement); or someone else supports something or demeans something, it's all really a case of short-term vested reactions. Is there something seriously wrong from the long-term perspective?

Ours is a time-bound license business. Therefore, we cannot afford any time loss in inaccurate studies, which do not attempt to cover India geographically. Even if it is a metro-based study, the sample sizes need to be larger and not rely on 'inefficient' diary filling methods. TV went through its share of similar problems, but time was not an issue in TV, as there were no time-bound licenses.

Moreover, the measurement, in no way, has been able to 'judge programming'; but it manages to present 'station recall' in many ways. That is not the role of this measurement exercise.

Every operator, at any given point in time, has questioned both the studies vehemently or has been held to ransom by the data provider. This has to stop.

Therefore the opportunity is really a major one. We must invite bids/pitches from renowned research/monitoring bodies, giving them a simple brief that cures both the IRS and RAM problems. This is what the AROI is attempting to do; and one can only hope that it is done with all seriousness and a result orientation.

The brief has to be: To give a low-cost, electronic method of measurement that covers at least 15 cities in the first phase (which will make RAM in its current form irrelevant); and every year, another 10 cities must be added. Also, the data should be weekly; thereby ensuring that the IRS' six-monthly data is proved irrelevant. The agency in question should be able to make a sizeable investment, so that the players are not so burdened.

If MRUC (Media Research Users Council) and RAM were to learn from their mistakes and quickly improve their methodologies, they would gain; if not, there are many other organizations, which could prove to be better.

It is up to all of us in radio to put in place one single robust audience measurement system, which truly measures 'programming quality', and not how many hoardings someone took. It is important for the radio medium, the most high-reach medium in this country to get its deserved credibility and status…and time is running out, as we speak.

(The author is managing director, Radio One.)