The Media Study, 1975–2000

Until the introduction of the radio panel in 2001, official figures on radio listening in Switzerland were provided by the Media Study, a continuous face-to-face survey with 18,000 interviews annually. Reported reach and usage figures were based on the statements of interviewees, who were asked to reconstruct the day preceding the interview; they did not keep diaries.
The SRG SSR (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation) Media and Local Radio Survey remains the most comprehensive study ever on media use in Switzerland. It records the media use of the Swiss population for the years 1975–2000: radio listening, TV viewing, Cinema viewing, listening and viewing of canned audio and video, reading of books and other publications and later also use of the Internet. Radio listening, including the consumption of the offerings of private radio stations after they became licensed and entered the market in 1983, was captured at the station level. In order to accommodate local radio stations with their smaller broadcasting areas, the study was considerably expanded in 1986.
While the Media Study was comprehensive, the reported figures were only as accurate as the interviewees’ memories. Furthermore, days were divided into quarter-hour intervals. The data for each interval indicated only whether or not media had been used, and, if so, only one medium was listed for the time in question. Shorter periods were either not registered at all or expanded to fill the entire 15 minutes. Since 2001, the radio panel has been providing us with precise radio-listening figures based on a passive measuring device.

The Time Use Study

Radio research by an electronic measuring device did not, however, fill all the gaps that would have emerged if the Media Study had been given up entirely. For example, we would no longer have had crucial information on the interplay between everyday activities and media use. A pared-down Media Study was therefore carried out between 2001 and 2003. In 2006, the Time Use Study was launched. It made use of the underlying concept of the Media Study without taking it up again. The changed media environment made it necessary to adopt new survey methods and a cross-media approach.