Market and economic research; polling and statistics

Tender description

S4C is the only Welsh language television channel and one of the UK's five public service television broadcasters. It is an independent broadcasting authority established under the Broadcasting Act 1981, and regulated by the Communications Act 2003 and the Broadcasting Act 1990. S4C, through this tender process, is seeking to appoint a company to recruit a panel of adults, both Welsh speakers and non-Welsh speakers, and to conduct weekly and monthly surveys in relation to S4C programmes and cross-channel viewing habits. It is essential that the successful tenderer has strong Welsh language capabilities and is able to communicate with panel members in fluent Welsh of a high standard. Surveys will need to be conducted by post as well as online. S4C will require the successful applicant to report weekly data to S4C for the period 4.2.2019 onwards. S4C wishes to appoint a provider to recruit and administer a panel of members of the public to provide estimates of viewing and audience appreciation data in connection with S4C programmes. The key elements of the services to be provided are: — the recruitment, management and administration of a panel across Wales of at least 1 400 adults made up of 1 000 Welsh speakers and 400 non-Welsh speakers, — all recruitment must be conducted bilingually in Welsh and English, with Welsh at first contact for Welsh speakers, — the panel members shall all be based in Wales, and the geographical and demographic representation of the panel should reflect that of Wales, with weighting to reflect either census populations or BARB establishment survey populations (to be discussed), — the delivery to S4C of a weekly survey capturing consumption of S4C programmes (expressed as programme reach and weekly channel reach), and the audience’s appreciation of S4C at a channel level as well as individual programme level. The appreciation indices (AI’s) will be scores out of 100, derived from a 10-point scale. S4C may specify specific questions which the successful tenderer shall include in the weekly survey from time to time, on average once a month, — the delivery to S4C of a general cross-channel appreciation survey once a month (channel appreciation score – up to 10 channels), — the delivery to S4C of a report regarding responses of the panel to supplementary questions once a month. S4C shall nominate the supplementary questions which shall be limited to 3 topics per month, — each member of the panel shall be contacted bilingually or in the language of their choice, Welsh or English, and all communication and documentation shall be bilingual or in the language of the panellist’s choice, — surveys shall be conducted in accordance with a relevant industry body’s best practice (such as the Market Research Society), no more than 80 % shall be conducted online with at least 20 % conducted by post, — all panel members shall be 16 years old or older and shall exclude individuals working in the media industry in Wales, — the successful tenderer shall ensure that at least one full time member of staff is a Welsh speaker to provide Welsh language services and deal with any questions or queries from panel members, — the organisation providing the service must abide a relevant industry society’s code of conduct in relation to the provision of these services to S4C (for example the MRS Code of Conduct).