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Cross-media Indicators
Dr Kim Jackson
Social Policy Group
This note uses a range of indicators to create two ratings of the relative
capacity of media organisations to influence the Australian population.
They are:
- Cross-media Population Reach. This is derived from the number
of households who are able to receive the signal of television and/or
radio stations controlled by a media organisation, plus the circulation
of the daily, Sunday, regional and suburban press and magazines.
- Cross-media Audience Share. This comprises that part of the
audience who are watching/listening to a particular organisation's television
and radio stations, plus paid print circulation (i.e. excluding the
suburban press).
As all such exercises will contain a large element of subjectivity,
particularly in the selection and weighting of the various media, the
results should only be regarded as indicative of one of many possible
approaches to this issue.
It has been assumed that a household's daily access to the broadcast
signal of a TV channel is the equivalent of a daily unit of press circulation.
Daily access to a radio broadcast has been weighted at 21 per cent of
a TV broadcast. This percentage reflects the ratio of commercial television
to radio licensees, the assumption being that the relative influence of
a licensee will depend largely upon the range of alternative sources in
the same medium.
For the print media, comparative equivalence has been achieved by converting
the circulation of weekly and monthly publications to a daily average.
Table 1 summarises the results for the major media organisations. Table
2 provides the indicators from which the ratings were derived together
with notes on the methods employed. Broadcasting licensees and press proprietors
have been attributed all of the audience or circulation of the media they
control. Minority interests have not been attributed.
These tables draw heavily on the work of Bruce Shearer, 'Media Ownership
Update', Communications Update no. 129, February 1997.
A more detailed explanation of the methods used can be found in Appendix
1 of Current Issues Brief no. 30, Cross-media Rules-OK, dated 3
June 1997.
Table 1: Cross-media Indices
Media Population Reach Audience Share
Organisation Index* Index*
(Proprietor)
ABC 59.4 9.1
SBS 45.2 0.9
News (Murdoch) 20.3 16.9
PBL (Packer) 27.8 10.3
Fairfax Group 5.9 4.7
Seven (Stokes) 35.8 10.9
Ten (Asper) 32.0 7.4
* (100=total control of all media)
Table 2: National Media Audiences/Circulation and Cross-media Ratings
MEDIA ORGANISATION TV Aud TV Share Pay TV Radio Daily Sun Region Suburb Mags(9) Cross Cross
(1) (2) Aud(3) Aud(4) Press(5) Press (6) Press(7) Press (8) Media Media
(% pop) (% view) (% holds) (% pop) (% circ) (% circ) (% circ) (% circ) (% circ Reach Share
top 30) (10) (11)
Australian Broadcasting Corp. 99.0 14 99.0 62.0 10.4
Special Broadcasting Service 77.5 2 65.0 47.2 1.0
Seven Network Ltd (Stokes) 71.4 30 1.7 1.2 1.6 37.4 12.4
Ten Group/Canwest (Asper) 64.6 23 33.4 8.4
PBL (Packer) 51.2 31 50.9 29.0 11.7
News Ltd (Murdoch) 2.1 66.9 76.4 22.2 47.9 36.4 21.1 17.9
Prime Network 24.7 12.8
TWT Holdings 22.7 11.2
Southern Cross Broadcasting 15.4 24.9 10.7
Telecasters Aust. Ltd. 17.5 8.7
APN (O'Reilly) 53.9 30.9 3.7 7.4
Fairfax Group 21.6 22.5 14.7 15.4 6.1 5.4
Village Roadshow 62.7 6.8
Lamb Family 6.9 27.0 6.5
NBN Ltd. 9.4 4.7
Sunraysia TV Ltd. 7.1 3.5
West Australian Newspapers 9.7 1.2 1.9
Rural Press/J.B. Fairfax 5.2 15.6 0.5 2.2
- Free-to-air television maximum potential audience reach as a percentage
of the population. Taken from B. Shearer, 'Media Ownership Update',
Communications Update no. 129, February 1997, Table 4.
- Average share of the total audience viewing television, by network,
five mainland State capital cities, Feb-Nov 1994. Taken from the ABA,
'Broadcast Audiences in the 90s', Trends & Issues, no. 4,
Feb 1996.
- Estimated pay TV subscriptions as a percentage of total households.
While Foxtel is owned 50:50 by News Ltd and Telstra, News has been attributed
all of the subscriptions because it is responsible for the content of
the service. Subscription figures are from the Australian Financial
Review, 13 March 1997. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate
of the number of Australian households in February 1996 (6 645 000)
has been used throughout.
- Maximum potential audience reach of radio stations as a percentage
of the population. From Shearer, Table 6.
- Capital city and national daily newspapers, average daily circulation
April-September 1996 as a percentage of the total daily circulation
of 2 422 279. From Shearer, Table 7.
- Sunday newspapers, average circulation April-September 1996 as a percentage
of the total Sunday circulation of 3 362 703. From Shearer, Table 9.
- Regional daily papers circulation September 1996 as a percentage of
the total regional daily circulation of 634 516. From Shearer, Table
14.
- Suburban newspaper circulation September 1996 as a percentage of the
total suburban circulation of 7 422 318. From Shearer, Tables 12 and
15. JB Fairfax has been attributed 50 per cent of the circulation of
Eastern Suburbs Newspapers.
- Magazine circulation at June 1996 as a percentage of the total circulation
of the thirty top selling magazines. From Shearer, Tables 17 and 18.
The figures differ from those of Shearer because circulation has been
adjusted for monthly or weekly publication. PBL and News Ltd have each
been attributed 50 per cent of the circulation of TV Week.
- Average daily cross-media population reach. The formula for this is
as follows: TV Audience in households + Pay TV subs + (Radio Audience
in households by 0.21) + average daily newspaper circulation (i.e. [combined
Daily and Regional Press circulation times six plus Sunday and Suburban
Press circulation]/7 + average daily magazine circulation (i.e. weeklies
by 52/365 plus monthlies by 12/365). The resulting figure for each media
organisation has then been converted to a percentage of the national
figure. It has been assumed that, on average, regional papers are published
six times a week and suburban papers once a week.
- Average daily cross-media audience share. This measure is intended
to reflect more closely the actual TV and radio audiences of the major
media organisations, together with their share of the daily press that
has a paid circulation (i.e. excluding suburban newspapers). TV Audience
has been adjusted according to the TV Share figures. Radio Audience
for the ABC and SBS has been adjusted by their approximate share of
the audience in the five mainland capital cities in 1994, i.e. ABC-22,
SBS-2. These are approximations because some ABC and all SBS radio stations
rate too low to be listed in 'Broadcast Audiences in the 90s'. Share
figures have only been calculated for the major organisations because
ratings are not readily available for regional broadcast areas.
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