A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Q

QRS
See Quality of Reading Survey.

Quality of Reading Survey
The aim of the Quality of Reading Survey is to give advertisers, media planners, buyers and media owners a greater understanding of the value of the print medium and the differences within it. The survey measures a wealth of behavioural and attitudinal characteristics among the readers of magazines and newspaper sections and supplements, including time spent reading, number of times a publication is picked up, how a publication is read, page exposures (PEX), action taken as a result of reading and attitude statements.

Quota Sample
See Sample.

R

Rack Sales
Sales of newspapers from racks or boxes, placed on street corners or other convenient points, with the customer depositing coin in payment in a box provided for the purpose. Same as "box" or "honour box" sales. 

Radio Index
The appreciation index for radio programmes is sometimes referred to as an RI - Radio Index. See Appreciation Index.

Radio Ratings
See Ratings (Rating Points).

RAJAR
 (Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd). RAJAR is the industry company responsible for the provision of radio audience research information in the UK and is jointly owned by the BBC and the CRCA (Commercial Radio Companies Association).  The information is collected using personalized diaries which are personally placed and collected. Over 120,000 adult diaries are processed annually (there is an additional sample for children aged 4-15) making RAJAR the largest radio audience research system outside the USA.

Random Sample
Sample designed to strict procedures to ensure that each member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected for interview. Sometimes referred to as EPSEM (equal probability of selection for every member). Also known as a Probability Sample. See Sample.

Ratecard
Published tariff for the purchase of media

Ratings (Rating Points)
Television Ratings are the percentage of the potential TV audience who are viewing at a given time. TV ratings (TVRs) can apply to any time period, such as one minute, a quarter hour, an individual commercial, a commercial break or a programme. For a programme or time period longer than a minute the rating is the average of all the minutes comprising the period involved. For an individual commercial, of 60 seconds or less, the UK calculation is based on the minute in which the commercial appeared. For a given category of individuals (e.g. men, women or children) this is the number of individuals viewing, expressed as a percentage of all such individuals. Spot Ratings, in terms of television research, are the estimated audiences for a specific commercial spot, expressed as a percentage of the total target market. They are used to buy and sell TV advertising. Radio Ratings are similarly expressed as a percentage of the population group being measured. Spot Ratings for radio are usually based on the quarter-hour or half-hour which the commercial was aired.

Reach
In broadcast research, the estimate of the number of people exposed to a TV or radio station/channel at least once in a defined period or who have had an opportunity to see a single advertisement or a given schedule. Sometimes called Coverage or Penetration. Specific reach definitions are as follows;
Campaign Reach - the number of different individuals who are exposed to any part of a schedule of commercials. May also be expressed as a percentage of the total population.
Channel Reach (or Patronage) is the absolute percentage of people who watch a channel at all over a particular period of time (typically one day, week or month). It is a key measure for both broadcasters and advertisers. The calculation is made minute-by-minute and then an average is taken.
Channel Reach is particularly important for public-service broadcasters, who have a remit to appeal to all the people some of the time.For advertisers, channel reach is a strong indication of how much that channel may be able to contribute to their campaign.Daily/Weekly Reach - is the estimated number of people who viewed a particular television channel in an average day/week (in the UK this must be for at least three consecutive minutes) or who listened to a particular radio station in an average day/week (in the UK the criteria is that they must have listened for at least five minutes in a fifteen minute period). Effective Reach is the percentage of the target audience who have the opportunity to see (OTS) the desired number of TV spots, or hear radio spots, or see press ads etc. For example, if it is desired that the target audience see between two and eight spots, then the effective reach of the schedule is the percentage with between two and eight OTS.

Reach and Frequency
The number of people who, for example, have had an opportunity to see an insertion in a given issue of a publication or who watch a television channel and the frequency which they read or watch it. Reach and Frequency Analysis or Schedule Evaluations calculate reach and frequency. See Schedule Evaluation for an explanation of how the calculations are made.

Reach and Frequency Analysis
See Reach and Frequency and Schedule Evaluation.

Readers Per Copy (RPC)
Estimate of the number of people who read an average circulated copy of a publication. It is calculated by dividing a title's total Average Issue Readership by its circulation, ideally its Audited Circulation. If a title's total readership is not measured by a readership survey then the number of readers per copy can only be guessed at.

Readership-Remembrance
The number and percentage of people who remember having seen individual posters - based on home interviews.

Reading and Noting
The readership measurement technique by which page traffic scores are obtained. "Noting" is generally accepted to mean seeing the page and "Reading" is reading some part of the page. See Noting Scores and Page Traffic.

Reading Frequency ("How Often")
The estimation of the frequency of exposure to a publication. Measurement techniques include verbal frequency scales (or categories), numeric frequency scales (or categories), mixtures of both, and recognition of a series of publications.

Reading Probability
For a given publication, reading probabilities are calculated for people falling within each claimed reading frequency group. The probability may be calculated in two ways, either on the claimed frequency or as an "observed frequency". The former is straight arithmetic, e.g. reading 3 out of 6 is a probability of 0.5 for the average issue. Observed frequency is a cross-tabulation, and the probability is the proportion within the frequency grouping who in fact qualified as average-issue-readers in answer to a recent-reading question.

Real Audio
Software that permits Internet users to listen to audio in real time. For instance, as a page is loading, the user can hear music or other sounds. See Real Time.

Real Time
The process by which software enables large quantities of fast changing audio/video data to be received almost immediately. See Real Audio.

Recall
The respondent's ability to remember something he or she is asked about. See Aided Recall and Memory Effects.

Recency
In readership surveys recency measures, for a given publication, the lapsed time between the last reading event and the day of interview.

Recent Reading
The term to describe the technique that establishes readership levels by asking respondents when they last read or looked at any issue of each publication. In most markets recent reading is the approach favoured for the estimation of readership levels. See Recency.

Recognition
See Issue Recognition.

Regular Readership
Estimate of the number of people who read a publication on a regular basis. This can be defined in a variety of ways, such as those who read three out of the last four issues of a title, irrespective of whether it is a daily, weekly, monthly or whatever. Not to be confused with Average Issue Readership.

Repeat Reading
When an issue of a publication or a particular page inside it is read or looked at on more than one occasion. It is not measured by most readership surveys but is extremely valuable to advertising. See also Opportunities to See (OTS)/Hear (OTH)

Replicated Readership
When a respondent reads the same issue of a publication during two or more different Publication Periods (i.e. "yesterday", "last week", "last month", etc.). This leads to the statistical probability of a single reader being counted twice or more as an average-issue-reader, resulting in readership figures which are over-estimated. See also Parallel Readership.

Respondent
Person who was successfully interviewed for a survey or who completed a usable questionnaire. Another name for Informant.

Response Function
Response functions attempt to identify a relationship between the number of Opportunities To See insertions in a schedule and the resulting effectiveness of the advertising. To do this, values - i.e. Weights - are put on the different numbers of opportunities to see insertions in the schedule; hence response functions are also known as Frequency Weights. Applying these weights gives the Effective Reach of the schedule, which is a measure of its effectiveness. Response functions can be stipulated for any schedule evaluation or Optimisation.

Response Rate
The number of successfully completed interviews or returned questionnaires expressed as a percentage of those it was attempted to screen or interview/question. The response rate should exclude cases that are outside the scope of the survey, for example addresses that are unoccupied.

Returns
Copies returned to publisher by dealer or other distributor for credit. Frequently, to save transportation charges, complete copies are not returned but only paper headings or covers. 

Road blocking
Placing a commercial on as many cable (or other minority) services as possible at the same time, to maximise ratings.

Rollervisions
Poster sites with the capacity to scroll between screens. A Rollervision can scroll up to 8 times. Also known as Scrollers

Rotation
A change in the order of presentation of publications over the sample of interviews. Rotations may be obtained randomly (e.g. shuffling of logo cards) or systematically (e.g. calculated permutation orders; forward and reverse orders; randomised starting points etc.). Rotations may be applicable (a) to the order of groups of publications and (b) to titles within publication groups. The same principle is also applied to pre-listed stations in TV/radio diaries.

RPC
Abbreviation of Readers Per Copy.

RR Survey
Abbreviation of Recent Reading Survey.