In the UK audience figures are calculated by BARB. BARB randomly selects around 5000 homes around the UK to which it gives a special electronic box which records who watches what and when in the house. Although there are only around 5000 homes, they are selected in a way (although random) that they statistically represents the demographic make-up of the country. They homes involved are also constantly changed so that the survey sample still represents the UK population accurately. Despite the apparently small survey size (although still about 5x bigger than the average opinion poll), the figures are mathematically accurate to around plus or minus 2%. Certainly, since they are used to calculate advertising rates, you can expect commercial networks to scream like stuffed pigs if they thought the figures underestimated their audience. At least thats what happened when TalkSport thought that the radio equivalent RAJAR, which uses a traditional paper based questionnaire, under-stated their figures Sky also has the ability to calculate its own figures using the data collected when its boxes phone home every night (thats why they insist it is connected to your phone line). Although, Sky has collected these figures in the past, they have never been released. That would suggest to me that Skys figures are broadly in agreement with BARBs. Source(s): barb.co.uk
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 11:13:54 +0000
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