Xtra Research secure Regional Surveys

Commercial Radio Australia has appointed Xtra Research as the official provider of regional radio surveys in 2016.

“The industry looks forward to working with Xtra to provide valuable insights into the regional listening audience for stations, advertisers and agencies”, said CRA CEO Joan Warner.

Xtra Reseach can undertake radio audience measurement for markets outside of the five capital cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and three major centres of the Gold Coast, Canberra and Newcastle, which are already covered by the current GfK Audience Measurement Survey contract.

As costs blew out over the years, smaller regional markets had not been surveyed for a number of years.  In 2014 CRA introduced the new methodology which enabled regional radio stations to commission one of a panel of four approved providers to undertake surveys in conjunction with other commercial and public broadcasters in their licence area.

Under the panel system, Xtra Research conducted surveys in Wollongong, Albury, Swan Hill, Hobart, Horsham, Hamilton, Colac, Warnambool, Sunshine Coast and Townsville.  Xtra Research will now become the single regional radio survey provider from 2016.

Paul Amos, Managing Director of Xtra Research said, “We are looking forward to working with Commercial Radio Australia and the regional stations to provide them with the critical sales and programming information they need. We believe in the strength of regional radio. Now as the exclusive provider, we can dedicate to further developing the tools and resources used by regional radio to demonstrate and present those strengths.”

With the new partnership with CRA, Paul Amos also announced that Bethaney Lawler, Research Director at Xtra, has been appointed to a new position as Head of Radio Audience Measurement.

“Having been involved in the trials of the new regional audience methodology, and worked together with CRA and the regional operators over the last few years, I’m thrilled to be leading the team that will provide essential insights into listener behaviour for regional areas,”said Bethaney.

CRA is also in the process of selecting a software provider to create a Gold Standard to take regional radio surveys into the next phase of development.  The Gold Standard enables radio stations and agencies to utilise software to optimise media planning, buying and results analysis.