Australia's Radio 360 Launches

In Australia, industry body Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) is to launch its audience measurement system 'Radio 360' tomorrow, 6th June, with the release of the third GfK metropolitan radio survey of the year.

Radio 360 will examine the size of radio's streaming audiences, following the uptake in recent years of listening over connected devices such as mobile phones and smart speakers. According to CRA, the move marks a 'historic transition' to a new hybrid measurement system developed by GfK, which aims to provide granular information on radio listening across all platforms and devices, anywhere and anytime.

Phase one will deliver total, broadcast and streaming audience figures for each radio station across the five major metro markets, while the second phase - in 2024 - will integrate 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. In addition, the system can measure listening spikes based around special events and breaking news, and continues operation of the existing eight radio surveys per year.

Radio360 integrates data from three different sources into one currency: 50,000 surveys per year completed by listeners in geographically and demographically representative households across the five metro markets; measurement of streaming listening over millions of connected devices, with data taken directly from radio station web sites, listening apps and server logs; and information from a 2,000-person panel of respondents wearing the GfK MediaWatch, which automatically captures information on radio listening when the wearer is in hearing range of a radio station.

GfK Media Measurement Director Deb Hishon (pictured) comments: 'We are genuinely excited to bring Radio 360 to market. It's a credit to the industry that Australia is one of the first countries in the world to introduce hybrid measurement to solve the complex challenge of measuring listening across so many places and platforms. This is just the start and we now have a foundation for future development and integration'.

Web sites: www.commercialradio.com.au and www.gfk.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.