Bubble Hits have cited the way TV ratings are calculated as the main reason for them ceasing operations on Friday February 13.
“The samples taken by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board in the UK and the Nielsen people here aren’t big enough to give an accurate assessment of your audience,” claims the M.D. of the Meath-based digital music channel James Hyland. “We’d get 10,000 entries for a competition we were running one day, and be told the next that we were under the measuring threshold.
“It’s not like radio where spots are booked and paid for regardless – if our BARB or Nielsen figure was zero, we didn’t receive any money for the commercial that went out immediately before or after the competition that got 10,000 entries! Until that’s addressed, it’ll be almost impossible for niche broadcasters like ourselves to survive.”
Bubble Hits aren’t the first media organisation to complain about sample size, with UK national station Talksport taking the company that measures UK radio ratings to court in 2004. Talksport’s claims that they were being robbed of 4.7 million listeners every week were thrown out, but the debate has raged ever since.
Reacting to the news of Bubble Hits’ closure, manager of The Blizzards, Justin Moffat, says: “It’s a real shame to see them go. God knows we need as many outlets as possible. Irish acts have been producing some fantastic videos lately!”
Bubble Hits launched in the UK and continental Europe in August 2006, and last May in Ireland with a dedicated service that included Louis Walsh, model Glenda Gilson and former Six member Liam McKenna among its team of presenters. Although disappointed at having to pull the plug on the station, Hyland is looking forward to the launch of his next project.
“We’ve put together a credible, non-cheesy pop band that’ll be publicly unveiled in six to seven weeks,” he enthuses. “They’ve been in Sweden working on songs with the same people who’ve written for Britney and Rihanna. There are three Irish and one English person in the line-up, all of whom are lead vocalists. I can’t give anything away except that one of them is Michelle McGrath the model.”