Only Switzerland, Italy and Canada regulate reach research

In the vast majority of countries, this type of applied usage research is carried out independently by market participants. This is shown by a country comparison study carried out by the research and consultancy firm Publicom on behalf of OFCOM.

Nationally valid standard key figures for the use of print media, radio, television, online media and other advertising media are of central importance for the media and the advertising industry. These so-called currencies create transparency with regard to the contact performance of advertising media. In most countries, they are managed by so-called JICs (Joint Industry Committees) or MOCs (Media Owned Committees), in which representatives of the media and advertising industries have joined forces. In America and Asia, the OS (Owned Service) model is also common, in which only market research companies are responsible for a currency. In Europe, this form of organization is unusual, with the exception of the comparatively young currency research in the online sector.

Until a few years ago, applied media usage research could easily be categorized according to the type of media it examined. TV, radio and other genre-specific currencies existed side by side. However, in the age of digital convergence, these currencies focused on individual genres provide an increasingly incomplete picture of media use. Accordingly, projects for convergent studies are underway or being planned in many countries. However, the methodological, structural and financial problems associated with such convergence studies are considerable and still unresolved almost everywhere. The logical consequence would be that not only the data but also the sector organizations merge. However, such a centralization of currency research in a single national organization is still the exception.

The biggest challenge for currency research may lie in the advertising industry's new online targeting strategies. Target group contacts are sold independently of the content and consequently advertising and media content are decoupled from each other. This development could lead to the advertising market's interest in extensive national usage research dwindling and the continued existence of currency research in its current form being called into question.

In the vast majority of the countries surveyed, the state has no role whatsoever in connection with currency research, which is generally organized by the market participants themselves. Only Italy, Canada and Switzerland have partial state regulation of currency research. In Switzerland, the Mediapulse Foundation has a legal mandate to collect scientific data on radio and television usage. It receives a contribution from reception fees towards the development and procurement of survey methods and systems and is subject to the supervision of the Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC).

The study can be downloaded via this direct link (PDF) can be downloaded from Bakom.admin.ch.