MacKenzie is set to launch a system that uses wristwatches, which identify the stations people are listening to, from March 3 in partnership with market research firm GfK.
The launch of the new service follows MacKenzie's much reported criticism of the Rajar diary system -- that it robs certain stations, particularly talk-based stations such as TWG's TalkSPORT, of advertising revenues because the diary system it uses is unreliable and out of date.
Rajar said that rather than holding back the industry, it has been monitoring the development of audio-meters since 1996. It said that the UK has a complex radio system and any new method would need to be able to measure both analogue and digital radio.
Rajar managing director Jane O'Hara said: "At no time has the industry been holding back on the introduction of audio-meters. It simply and quite sensibly wants to know exactly what audio-meters can and can't do, whether they provide a great form of accuracy or a different form of inaccuracy and whether they are affordable."
O'Hara also cast doubt of the reliability of any new system because they have not yet been tried and tested in any major markets.
"It is important to remember that audio-meters have not yet been introduced into any major market-place, whether in the US or Europe, and this is for a very good reason -- they are still being tested to see exactly what they can do. All eyes are on the UK," she said.
MacKenzie has signed a three-year contract with GfK and the system will report its first figures in June.
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