MUMBAI: Kolkata became the fourth metro in the country to have TAM's Radio Audience Measurement services on Thursday.
RAM, the service launched jointly by IMRB and Nielsen Media Research, itself completes a year of operation this July, having already rolled out the radio monitoring service in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore in September 2007.
Hyderabad and Chennai are the next two cities to go on the RAM radar, presumably by the end of 2008. RAM has mandated 2008 and 2009 as the years for awareness drive - to help advertisers understand the medium better - on its agenda are an E-curriculum module, reworked on the basis of RAM India methodology, a one on one advertiser customised RAM workshop, and an integration of RAM into TAM's annual Rising Stars program for media planning agencies.RAM's data analysis software interface Radio Advisor is also unveiling two new modules - station loyalty and Ebb and Flow, as well as recalibrating the Reach and Frequency Module for the panel, to allow post evaluations on actual data. As of now, India is the only country where radio is being evaluated on a weekly basis, and RAM plans to use the data for tracking periodical promotional activities as well as special programming and marketing initiatives undertaken by the stations under its scanner.RAM also released the highlights of the baseline study undertaken before the launch in Kolkata. The study, undertaken from 30 January to 4 March, has indicated that 65 per cent of the population owns a radio. 98 per cent of these are FM owners, with 62 per cent owning one FM device at home. 89 per cent of FM owners have a portable device, with 40 per cent of these listening to FM on their mobile phones. Among the FM owners there is a distinct skew towards the SEC A and B.While Kolkata is closer to Mumbai in respect of figures of radio ownership, it is second only to Delhi when it comes to ownership of a portable device - while 90 per cent of Delhi's FM owners have a portable device, 89 per cent of Kolkata's FM owners possess one. Single device ownership is prominent in Kolkata - with 62 per cent owning a single device, and just five per cent of FM owners having more than three devices.
Interestingly, non radio/FM owners are sampling FM actively in Kolkata - 13 per cent of non owners acknowledge listening to FM on a yesterday listenership basis, while in the other markets, non radio owners have hardly been exposed to the medium.Among FM owners in Kolkata, the reach of FM even surpasses that of print on a weekly level - with FM offering 82 per cent reach, against 69 per cent offered by print.
According to the survey, 41 per cent of FM owners also consume music on other devices. However, just 14 per cent of non FM owners listen to music on other devices, the study notes.
A study of the panel, constituted after the results of the baseline study were collated, indicates that 51 per cent of the panel preferred Bangla as the language of choice for music. Out of home listening in Kolkata is restricted at 14 per cent (with 26 per cent of the listeners in the 25 to 34 age group), while 89 per cent of the tune ins occur at home, the study notes.
MUMBAI: Kolkata became the fourth metro in the country to have TAM's Radio Audience Measurement services on Thursday.
RAM, the service launched jointly by IMRB and Nielsen Media Research, itself completes a year of operation this July, having already rolled out the radio monitoring service in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore in September 2007.
Hyderabad and Chennai are the next two cities to go on the RAM radar, presumably by the end of 2008. RAM has mandated 2008 and 2009 as the years for awareness drive - to help advertisers understand the medium better - on its agenda are an E-curriculum module, reworked on the basis of RAM India methodology, a one on one advertiser customised RAM workshop, and an integration of RAM into TAM's annual Rising Stars program for media planning agencies.RAM's data analysis software interface Radio Advisor is also unveiling two new modules - station loyalty and Ebb and Flow, as well as recalibrating the Reach and Frequency Module for the panel, to allow post evaluations on actual data. As of now, India is the only country where radio is being evaluated on a weekly basis, and RAM plans to use the data for tracking periodical promotional activities as well as special programming and marketing initiatives undertaken by the stations under its scanner.RAM also released the highlights of the baseline study undertaken before the launch in Kolkata. The study, undertaken from 30 January to 4 March, has indicated that 65 per cent of the population owns a radio. 98 per cent of these are FM owners, with 62 per cent owning one FM device at home. 89 per cent of FM owners have a portable device, with 40 per cent of these listening to FM on their mobile phones. Among the FM owners there is a distinct skew towards the SEC A and B.While Kolkata is closer to Mumbai in respect of figures of radio ownership, it is second only to Delhi when it comes to ownership of a portable device - while 90 per cent of Delhi's FM owners have a portable device, 89 per cent of Kolkata's FM owners possess one. Single device ownership is prominent in Kolkata - with 62 per cent owning a single device, and just five per cent of FM owners having more than three devices.
Interestingly, non radio/FM owners are sampling FM actively in Kolkata - 13
per cent of non owners acknowledge listening to FM on a yesterday listenership basis, while in the other markets, non radio owners have hardly been exposed to the medium.Among FM owners in Kolkata, the reach of FM even surpasses that of print on a weekly level - with FM offering 82 per cent reach, against 69 per cent offered by print.
According to the survey, 41 per cent of FM owners also consume music on other devices. However, just 14 per cent of non FM owners listen to music on other devices, the study notes.
A study of the panel, constituted after the results of the baseline study were collated, indicates that 51 per cent of the panel preferred Bangla as the language of choice for music. Out of home listening in Kolkata is restricted at 14 per cent (with 26 per cent of the listeners in the 25 to 34 age group), while 89 per cent of the tune ins occur at home, the study notes.
