Akashvani

Audience Research

With the changing mass communication scenario, Audience Research has occupied the centre stage. World over, almost all the big media organizations have been doing in-house audience research in one form or the other or ‘Market Research’ in marketing parlance as no media organization can afford to put their scarce resource at stake without knowing the potential audience(consumers) and market for their media content. Besides, they are also subscribing to syndicated research done by the various media and market research organizations. The secret behind the success of private TV and Radio channels lies in their capability to feel the pulse of audience through continuous audience research and to design and modify the programme content including presentation accordingly.

All India Radio has been the pioneer in this field. It has a wide net work of Audience Research Units across the country operational since 1946. It provides programme feedback to programme producers to plan, design, and modify the progrmmes according to the needs, tastes, and aspiration of the target audience. Apart from this, programme ratings/listenership data are provided to sponsors, advertisers, and marketers to fulfill their commercial objectives.

Role and Functions:

Providing instant feedback to programme planners/ producers through Quick feedback studies, Listeners’ Letter Analysis, Content Analysis, Focus Group Discussions and Panel Studies etc.
Carrying out periodical large scale Radio Audience Surveys on various AIR channels to provide listenership data to programmers, sponsors, advertisers, and marketers.
Undertaking sponsored Audience Research studies from other government departments/autonomous bodies
Functioning as data bank, research and reference section for the organization.
Helping to develop marketing strategies in terms of providing listenership data across socio economic categories.

Various types of Radio Audience Research Surveys/Studies undertaken in the recent years

Quick Feedback Study on ESD Programme of AIR, among NRIs At 11^th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas at AIR Kochi 2012-13.
Listenership Survey on Regional SW Services at 20 Stations, 2013-14.
Radio Audience Survey on DRM Transmission –February-March,2015 at 7 places.
Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on FM Gold, Chennai, July, 2015.
A Study on the Effectiveness on Community Radio Stations at 5 stations, October-November, 2015.
Radio Audience Survey on North-Eastern Service at 8 stations, November-December-2015.
Radio Audience Survey on MW Transmission at 26 stations, January-March, 2016.
Pilot Study on Competition Watch based on content monitoring of FM Channels in Delhi, February, 2016.
Quick Feedback Study on ‘Mann Ki Baat’ (Field Survey) at 30 stations, August-September, 2016.
Radio Audience Survey on Local Radio Stations (LRS) in July-September, 2017 at 25 stations.
Radio Audience Survey on AIR FM Rainbow and Gold Channel: 2018-19 during October-November, 2018 at 24 stations.
Monitoring of Reception Quality of various channels of AIR during June-August, 2018 at 13 stations.
Telephonic Quick Feedback Study on ‘Maan Ki Baat’ for all the episodes broadcast so far from November, 2014 to the last episode in February, 2019.
Radio Audience Survey on Vividh Bharati Channel at 41 stations, February, 2019.

Weekly ‘Feedback survey on Kisanvani Programme’ sponsored by Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India at 96 Stations spread over 24 states and three UTs across the country covered about 20,000 villages and two lakh farmers up to 30th September,2008. It might be the biggest feedback survey ever conducted by any media research organization.
Radio Audience Survey on FM channels for the fixation of rates of advertising through DAVP, sponsored by DAVP, M/O Information and Broadcasting, Government of India at 84 places all over the country during 2009-10.
Ankhain Hain Anmol (Sponsored study by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) at 20 stations, 2012-13
Impact Assessment Study on RTI Campaign (Sponsored study by DOPT) September- October-2015 at 10 stations.
Impact Assessment Study on the publicity campaign in the LWE affected area’ July-August, 2016 to 2018 completed five phases at 7 stations.
Impact Assessment Study on Publicity Campaign on Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) in August-September, 2017 at 50 stations.
Impact Assessment Study on National SC/ST Hub Radio Spots over AIR FM Rainbow Channel during December-2017-January, 2018 at 25 stations.
Impact Assessment Study on National SC/ST Hub Radio Spots over AIR Vividh Bharati Channel during January-February, 2018 at 41 stations.