S Griffiths: Task 3: Purpose of research

What is audience data?

Audience data is used by Television networks, to gather information about how popular there product (program, channel or service) is - These are more popularly known as ratings.

The networks gather this information demographically, which basically means they see how many people watch and also the different groups of people, for example children, teens, adults etc The networks can then see how popular it is against other/rival shows and networks and create the best time slots and know who there target audience is etc.

Example: "the show is popular with a young demographic"

Good points:

- Can be a less expensive option

- Greater knowledge of the audience: expert knowledge can help in planning and conducting for a particular or audience and research.

- More in depth control: a market research agency might have different ideas about how to research an audience.

Bad points:

- Lack of experience in conducting research can lead to poor research

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Example of audience data:

Key Sources of Cultural & Sporting Data in England
This document has compiled by Audiences UK and Cultural Consulting Network with the active engagement and support of Sport England, English Heritage, MLA and Arts Council England.
It aims to bring together and explain in a straightforward way what are all the key sources of cultural and sporting data, what they are used to measure and what other uses they might have. It has been designed primarily for Local Government officers (Planners, Cultural Officers, Performance Managers, etc.) but could also be useful for policy makers, funders and individual cultural and sporting organisations. It is the first time we have produced this summary. We intend to update it on a quarterly basis and would welcome feedback and further suggestions for data to be included.
Cultural Consulting Network and the members of Audiences UK are specialists in turning data into intelligence that can inform strategic planning. If you’d like to find out more about what we do, please visit our websites: www.culturalconsulting.net and www.audiencesuk.org

Type	Field	Name	Source	Level of Reporting	Real/ Modelled	Refreshed	What is it?	What is it used to measure?	Why is it useful?
Participation	Culture & Sport	Taking Part	DCMS	National Regional	Real	Annually	A continuous national survey, achieving an annual sample size of around 29,000 people. Commissioned to collect data about engagement and non-engagement in culture, leisure and sport.	National Public Service Agreement 21: Indicator 6: to increase the percentage of adults (aged 16 and over) who participate in culture or sport. This target is owned by the DCMS.	The data on the DCMS website is very top level, but there is useful analysis at a national and regional on the some of the NDPM websites that can be used to understand issues around participation: Arts Council, English Heritage.
Participation	Culture & Sport	Active People	Sport England	National Regional Local	Real	Annually	The survey provides by far the largest sample size ever established for a sport and recreation survey and allows levels of detailed analysis previously unavailable. It identifies how participation varies from place to place and between different groups in the population. The survey also measures; the proportion of the adult population that volunteer in sport on a weekly basis, club membership, involvement in organised sport/competition, receipt of tuition or coaching, and overall satisfaction with levels of sporting provision in the local community. It now also includes questions on engagement with the arts, museums and galleries and libraries.	The Active People Survey provides the measurement for National Indicator 8 (NI8) - adult participation in sport and active recreation. The survey also provides the measure for the cultural indicators NI9, 10 and 11.	Active People Diagnostic is an innovative online reporting and analysis tool that can be used for local strategic planning for sport and other areas of cultural planning. It allows analysis of the entire survey dataset, so users can analyze their own local patterns of participation and the demographic make-up of participants and non- participants and compare with other geographic areas. Free and simple access is available to all via site registration http://www.webreport.se/apd/login.aspx
Participation	Arts	Arts Audiences – Insight. (Arts-based segmentation)	Arts Council England	National Regional Ward	Modelled	No refresh to model currently planned	ACE has worked with CACI Ltd to develop a local level modelling of their 13 arts consumer segments. The modelling is based on the probabilities of people living in different English postcodes to belong to the 13 segments. It asks: given what we know about the demographic and lifestyle characteristics of the people living in that postcode, what segment are they likely to belong to? A segment profile for a particular area is calculated by aggregating the probabilities calculated for each constituent postcode.	It is modelled not real data, so it cannot be used to measure anything. However it gives a good insight into understanding broad trends and the complex interaction of various socio-demographic, behavioural and attitudinal patterns among the English adult population of any particular area. Because the modelling works on postcodes, it can be used at any geographical level. Ward profiles are included on the website.	Since the data is modelled - not based on actual local level surveys - it may not reflect true local level patterns. It is intended to be a source of broad insight into likely arts consumption patterns across different areas, not of precise local level statistics.