The al-Hurra audience debate

Alvin Snyder on the debate over al-Hurra's audience:

Recently, Worldcasting cited that Al Hurra had a 14 percent viewership in Iraq, according to one independent survey. However, a survey released by the network showed 44 percent viewership in the country. Both surveys had about the same number of respondents in their samples for national representation of actual viewing, both did face-to-face interviews throughout Iraq, which is considered more reliable than telephone polling. Each defended to Worldcasting its sample model - the locations of respondents within Iraq - as the most representative of the entire country.

Why the differing results? The survey showing 44 percent recorded the percentage of the adult population in the Iraq sample that said that they viewed Al Hurra in the past week, while the lower figure, 14 percent, represented viewers who watched the channel the day before. Previous day numbers are "the currency of the market, most of the agencies, media and advertisers are relying on such data", according to a spokesperson for IPSOS-STAT, a leading independent marketing company in the Middle East. I also know from my personal experience at CBS in New York, that the overnight ratings delivered to my desk first thing each morning were grabbed before coffee.

A representative from the US government's International Broadcasting Bureau spoke to Worldcasting and granted that "weekly audiences are normally greater than daily audiences for all channels, since more people watch any given channel at least once over the course of a week than watch on any given day".

The spokesperson defended the network's research by saying that "Weekly viewing and/or listening is the standard audience measure used for all" - the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and others - and that it is also the standard measure by other international broadcasters including "the BBC, Radio France International, Deutsche Welle, Radio Canada ... We use the weekly measure to maintain consistency."

I'm not sure that weekly vs daily exhausts the possible explanations to be explored, but it's a good start. 

Comments

[Nur al-Cubicle]

How about, the Pentagon hands out payola to the survey takers and massages the data to strike just the right balance between plauibility and transparent lie?

[Nur al-Cubicle]

How about, the Pentagon hands out payola to the survey takers and massages the data to strike just the right balance between plausibility and transparent lie?

[John Penta]

Equally possible, but it'd be harder to tell.

(Why has Neilsen not hit the ME yet?)