Task 3

QUANTITATIVE AUDIENCE RESEARCH

http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/what-isquantitative-researchhttp://www.southalabama.edu/coe/bset/johnson/oh_master/Ch14/Tab14-01.pdf
http://www.ehow.co.uk/info_8091178_advantages-disadvantages-qualitativequantitative-research.html
Quantitative research is research conducted in the form of numbers. For example
expressed through charts & graphs. Surveys and questionnaires are a good form
of quantitative research as you can generalise the results into a quantity. This
type of research is more reliable when you use a large sample as you can
generalise the results better as you have a broader range of answers. There are
many pros and cons to this type of audience research. The benefits to getting
numerical data is you can generalise the results giving you a clearer outcome.
For example if you wanted to find out which county listened to a certain radio
station the most, you would be able to receive a more reliable answer if you
asked more people. By using quantitative research it is more reliable than
opinion based research. This is because it is more precise, with qualitative data
you get the opinions of the subjects however with quantitative data you get the
statistics.
However there are also disadvantages to this kind of research. This type of
research is incredibly time consuming, as you have to use a large sample. This
could potentially cost more money depending if you are paying the subjects to
take part in a survey. Another disadvantage would be that because its all figures
it wouldnt be up to date. Statistics are always changing so your findings
wouldnt be valid for long. Also with quantitative research it is harder to explain
reasons why. It is very limited with what you can get out of it.

QUALITATIVE AUDIENCE RESEARCH

http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/market-research/what-is-qualitativeresearchhttp://archive.learnhigher.ac.uk/analysethis/main/qualitative1.html
This is research collected showing why people think what they think. It allows the
subjects to give reasoning behind their answers. This sort of research should be
done through a focus group or face to face interview as then the interviewer /
researcher can see the reactions of the people partaking. This is beneficial when
they are saying why as you can then fully understand if you can see them.
The advantages to this kind of research is it provides depth and detail. This kind
of research allows you to record the attitudes and the reasons behind peoples
views. Another advantage would be the fact it creates openness, meaning it
encourages people to expand on their answers which could lead to discovering
new things that werent originally part of the study. Allowing researchers to
expand on their data. Unlike quantitative data qualitative data allows you to
examine complex questions to get more than just closed answers. Along with any

form of research there are still disadvantages. The fact you are unable to
generalise the answers to that of the population, this could be considered a
hindrance as you have to make your conclusion based on a variety of opinions
and the reasons why, which is a lot harder than being able to see the numerical
value of how many people think a certain thing. With qualitative research you
have to use a smaller sample. This is because it would be too complicated to get
the answers of more than say 100 people because it is open questions rather
than closed. This is a disadvantage because it means your results might not be
as reliable. Alongside this, with qualitative data it is harder to make systematic
comparisons. All of the answers will be vary from one another meaning you cant
group them.
In the media industry mainly the researchers would use qualitative data in order
to find out peoples views on a particular TV show or other media platform, for
example a magazine.

BARB
http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/barb-facts/faq
http://www.barb.co.uk/resources/barb-facts/how-we-do-what-we-do?_s=4
BARB stands for Broadcasters Audience Research Board. It was set up in 1981 in
order to provide the industry information based on audiences. It gives companies
information on audience figures, for example ratings. 6 companies own BARB:
BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, BSkyB and the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in
Advertising). BARB can gather who is watching the television, what they are
watching, when they are watching, which platform are they watching on and how
did the content get to the screen. BARB does all of this by selecting family
houses to put a panel into their television. They survey over 1000 people weekly
to enable them to recognise which homes they put the panel in. Due to this
quantitative data BARB can use these results to devise an accurate
representation of the entire of the UK. Television companies then use this
information to make conclusions on how well the TV show is doing and whether
they have a different target audience than expected etc. This diagram shows the
different channels that use BARB showing the percentage share of audiences. For
example BBC One holds 21.7% of audiences. As you can see most major
channels use BARB such as: Sky, the BBC, Channel 4, Viacom etc. They use BARB
as a reference to help them work out their audience. BARB is a form of secondary
research so companies wouldnt just use BARB as there audience research.

ABC
http://abc.go.com/info

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Company
http://www.britannica.com/topic/American-Broadcasting-Company
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/American_Broadcasting_Company
ABC stands for American Broadcasting Company. It is an American television
network which broadcasts a variety of shows. From Modern Family to The
Jimmy Kimmel Show. It was founded in 1943 and also hosts radio as well as a TV
network. The radio network was ABCs original outlet soon branching out to
television also. They partnered with United Paramount Pictures when starting the
company which made the company stronger. ABC is the leader in developing,
producing a distributing certain TV shows. ABC is owned by Walt Disney as is
among the most successful television & radio networks.

This is a screenshot showing all the television networks owned or formerly owned
by ABC.