Intelligence you can count on

The official FPinfomart blog.

Posts Tagged ‘radio’

« Previous Entries

Audience Size and Ad Value Data for Broadcast Content Now Available

Posted by Jennifer Stein on August 10, 2011

We’ve added audience size and ad value data for many of the (TV and radio) channels we cover in our Broadcast Monitoring product.

This information has been hand-gathered by our own internal research.

Where data is available, we are now showing two metrics in the Media Analysis section of broadcast results:  Ad Value and Audience Reach.  This information will appear where available; if we were unable to obtain data or create a reasonable estimate, the value has been left blank.

Please note that we provide only one ad value and one audience reach number per station, and we have chosen to provide the ad value and audience reach numbers for the 6 p.m./evening news broadcast.

Ad Value and Audience Reach will display in the peek where available.

Ad Value

Broadcast Ad Value represents the quoted rate for a 30-second advertising spot during the 6 p.m./ main evening news for each channel.  Ad value is provided where we were able to obtain a rate, or where we had enough similar data to make a reasonable estimate.  Ad Rate is NOT provided for any CBC Radio stations, as CBC radio does not typically accept commercial advertising.

Audience Reach

The audience reach represents the number of people watching or listening to that station during the 6 p.m./evening news.  Audience Reach is provided where we were able to obtain a statistic, or where we had enough similar data to make a reasonable estimate.

Why the 6 p.m. news?

Our system is set up to accommodate only a single ad and audience value for each individual channel, and so we needed to select a representative time.  We chose the 6 p.m. news, for two main reasons:

  1. An evening news broadcast (commonly at 6 p.m. or similar) is available on MOST stations, and therefore cross-station comparisons can be made.
  2. Our broadcast monitoring product is intended for monitoring the news, and the 6 p.m. broadcast is usually considered to be a summary of all the day’s happenings.

Our researcher spent several months mining for this data and we believe it to be as accurate as possible at the time it was gathered.  Please note, however, that values can change; that ad rates may be discounted; that specific programs (other than the 6 p.m. news) may have different statistics; and that various institutions may provide different statistics.  Please keep this variability in mind and use these values as guidelines when making decisions based on broadcast data.

Posted in Announcements, Broadcast | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Chargeable broadcast clicks now more clearly identified in results

Posted by Jennifer Stein on May 26, 2011

With the increase in popularity of our Broadcast Monitoring services, many of our customers are in the novel situation of having an “all you can eat” subscription for the news portions of FPinfomart but paying transactionally for the broadcast (TV and/or radio) content they consume through our service.  We understand that this can be confusing, especially to newer users who may not be aware that some clicks are “free” while others result in a charge.

While we do display a warning the FIRST time you click a broadcast item, the “broadcast notice” is not repeated after you’ve accepted acknowledgement of the notice.

To assist you in understanding when or if clicking on a broadcast hit will result in a charge, we are now displaying a dollar symbol ($) to the right of any program title which would result in a transactional charge upon opening this item.

Chargeable broadcast item with dollar sign.

The dollar symbol will only display next to those items transactionally chargeable for YOUR subscription, and ONLY:

  • If you are a “Special Edition” subscriber
  • On “peek” results throughout the FPinfomart.ca site
  • In items in summary-format e-mail Alerts

The dollar symbol will NOT be displayed:

  • For “Infomart Web” subscribers (because all content clicks on Infomart Web are transactionally charged)
  • In Newsletters
  • In RSS feeds or HTML Homepages (Intranet Toolkit)

We hope that the addition of this indicator will assist you in reducing “accidental” clicks on chargeable content.

Posted in Broadcast, General | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Back To Basics: Session 5 – Broadcast Monitoring on FPinfomart.ca

Posted by Jennifer Stein on April 14, 2011

back to basics

The fifth entry in our Back to Basics series is on the topic of Broadcast Monitoring on FPinfomart.  We monitor 82 Canadian TV channels and 50 Canadian radio stations, with the ability to retrieve broadcast content online within 30 minutes of air time.  This presentation focuses on what’s available and some details about our service.

Broadcast Monitoring on FPinfomart.ca [PDF]

Posted in Back to Basics | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Use Case: Radio Monitoring + Alerts

Posted by Jennifer Stein on January 6, 2011

I’m an avid CBC Radio One listener.  Yesterday, as I was driving to the office, I heard a promo for a segment relevant to my work scheduled for broadcast this coming Saturday afternoon.  However, I know already I won’t be near a radio on Saturday afternoon.

Of course, I know I can retrieve the broadcast after the fact using the FPinfomart radio monitoring service.  But I’m worried I’ll forget to do so.  I need a way to remind myself to download the segment on Monday.

A great solution is to create a Personal Profile, making sure to insert keywords that are guaranteed to be in the show I’m trying to catch (and, if possible, less likely to be used in other programs).  I’ll limit my source selection to a single source – CBC Radio One in Toronto (where it will be broadcast).  And then, the most important step in this use case:  I’ll set up an Alert so that I’ll receive an e-mail as soon as the segment has been added to FPinfomart (typically within 30 minutes of broadcast).

The Alerts link on a Profile

Click the "Alerts" link next to the Profile name to turn Alerts on for this Profile.

When I’m back at the office on Monday, my FPinfomart Alert will not only remind me to login and download the broadcast segment, a link directly to the clip will be provided right in the e-mail!

TIP:  When setting up this type of Alert, make sure to choose “Summary Format.”  Since radio clips are transactionally charged on many subscription plans, choosing to include full text radio clips in an e-mail Alert may incur costs.

Alert Settings screen

Choose the "Summary Format" option to receive only Peeks (citations) in your e-mail Alerts. Each item will include a link directly to the clip transcript, but will avoid incurring any charges for false hits, as Peeks are always free.

Posted in Broadcast, Tips | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Slides From our Recent Radio Monitoring Open House

Posted by Jennifer Stein on December 6, 2010

radio towerThanks to all of you who attended our recent Radio Monitoring Open House sessions.  We had some great questions, and I believe it was informative for all participants.

Although our open house included live demo portions, I’ve inserted screenshots where possible into the slides I used during the presentation.  I’ve also embeded a couple of relevant video tutorials from our YouTube channel where appropriate.  I’m pleased to offer these slides for you to view at your convenience [Powerpoint slideshow].

You may also want to check out these previous blog posts, both of which include an embedded video tutorial.

If you weren’t able to attend our open house sessions, you’ll be able to find most of the information we covered by checking out these slides and the video tutorials cited here.

Posted in Broadcast, Training | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Notice: FPinfomart Scheduled Maintenance to BROADCAST content – Friday, December 3rd

Posted by Jennifer Stein on December 1, 2010

maintenance iconOur data provider is moving to a new datacenter overnight this Friday, December 3rd.  As a result, we will not have TV or radio coverage available for the period beginning at 7:00 p.m. ET through to the early hours of Saturday morning.  We expect this outage to last approximately 6-8 hours from start to finish.

Please note that TV & radio content broadcast during this time period will not be recoverable, as recording will stop during the outage.

We thank you for your understanding.

Posted in Maintenance | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Change to CBRA copyright fees effective January 1, 2011

Posted by Jennifer Stein on November 29, 2010

The Canadian Broadcasters Rights Agency (CBRA) is a Federal organization associated with the Copyright Board.  The CBRA collects and distributes copyright revenue generated by the resale of content owned by member broadcasters.  It is the agency which allows us to provide our Broadcast Monitoring services (TV and Radio) to you.

Their mandate, according to the Copyright Board of Canada:

The Canadian Broadcasters Rights Agency (CBRA) claims royalties for programming and excerpts of programming owned by commercial radio and television stations and networks in Canada, including CTV, TVA and Quatre-Saisons networks and their affiliates, the Global Television Network, independent television stations and the privately-owned affiliates of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and Société Radio-Canada (SRC).

The Tariff governing the terms of the CBRA is reviewed periodically, and a new version is set to be implemented as of January 1, 2011. The only change impacting our customers in the new Tariff is that the royalty charged for CBRA member content is increasing from its current rate of 10% to a new rate of 14%.

These charges are collected by FPinfomart and are remitted directly to the CBRA, who then distribute the royalty to the content owners on your behalf. You will find these charges clearly marked on your FPinfomart invoice.

If you’re interested in browsing the full terms of the CBRA Tariff, you can view an online copy at the Canada Gazette.  You may find many answers here to your questions about broadcast copyright rules and regulations!

Please note that the copyright fee for CBC content will remain at its current rate of 14%.

Posted in Broadcast | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Radio Monitoring Open House – Join Us!

Posted by Jennifer Stein on November 17, 2010

Are you a Radio Monitoring subscriber looking for tips and tricks on getting better results?  Or do you not yet subscribe but are curious what FPinfomart’s Radio Monitoring service looks like?

Please join us for one of two LIVE Radio Monitoring Open House sessions I’ll be hosting virtually via WebEx.  There is no cost to attend, however registration is required.  Please see the dates below for a link to register for the session of your choice.  Bring your questions!

Open House SignOpen House Agenda:

  • Radio Monitoring Service demonstration
  • Tips & Tricks overview
  • Open Question period

Open House Dates:

Thursday, November 25th, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. (ET) [register for this session] Registration now closed.

Wednesday, December 1st, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. (ET) [register for this session] Registration now closed.

Neither of these dates work for you?  Want a customized session?  Please contact us – we’d be happy to set up a training session for you.

Posted in Broadcast, Training | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Help us improve the accuracy of radio transcripts

Posted by Jennifer Stein on October 12, 2010

radio tower We recently posted an entry describing keyword strategies for radio monitoring, given the potential for mistranscriptions in automatically generated speech-to-text transcripts.

We are embarking on a new project which will create a dictionary of commonly-encountered auto-transcription errors. This dictionary will allow us to translate them to the correct text before presenting them to you. We are soliciting your assistance in populating this dictionary. If you encounter a radio transcription issue, please e-mail the example to me for consideration.   Your submission should include the mistranscription, what the correct text should have been, and, if possible, a citation (Station name, date, and time of broadcast).

For examples of transcription issues, please watch this video.

Please note, this dictionary will be helpful for consistent mistranscriptions, but will not help with one-time errors due to poor sound quality, or punctuation issues.

Thanks for helping us improve our product for everyone!

Got other suggestions for FPinfomart?  Consider joining our Customer Idea Exchange community.

Posted in Broadcast | Tagged: , | Comments Off

Keyword strategies for radio monitoring

Posted by Jennifer Stein on September 28, 2010

FPinfomart monitors 50 Canadian radio stations in near-realtime.  This means you can browse and search for radio content broadcast 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, within about 30 minutes after it’s been aired.  The ability to access the complete contents of these channels, search the content by keyword, and instantly access audio clips through a self-service interface makes our service valuable.

The text attached to audio clips (transcripts) is generated using speech-to-text technology.  It is this computer-generated text which allows us to offer the complete contents of the monitored channels, as well as get the content online so quickly – there is no waiting for a human transcription service, or need to monitor only “high-priority” programs.  However, because the transcripts are generated automatically by computer, there can occasionally be unintended transcription “errors.”

The accuracy of the speech-to-text engine is actually quite good.  Mitigating factors which decrease the accuracy of transcripts include:

  • Poor audio quality (e.g. an interview conducted over a static-prone phone connection)
  • Heavily-accented speaker
  • Use of words not in a dictionary (unusual names, less-common company names, slang, jargon, acronyms)
  • Speaker using poor diction, or talking too quickly (making words run together)

Knowing this, and keeping in mind that there is no copy-editing of the automated transcripts, it is necessary to use different strategies when monitoring for radio content than you might use when monitoring the more strictly-controlled text in print and other “traditional media” sources.

You’ll want to use variations on spellings of the words you’re searching.  You’ll also want to think carefully about other English words that your keywords or phrases might sound like to a computer – especially if you’re searching names of people, places, corporations, or other entities.

The following video demonstrates two examples of the types of strategies you can employ to mitigate speech-to-text mistranslations in radio monitoring.

Posted in Broadcast | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries
 
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 84 other followers