Universe

Since the beginning of the year 2016, the target population has been the "resident population in the Federal Republic of Germany in private households with at least one television in use and a German-speaking main income earner."

In the video standard market the target population expands to the "resident population in the Federal Republic of Germany in private households with at least one television in use or at least one streaming-capable device and a German-speaking main income person."

With this target population, the usage of video standard housholds is represented by approximately 78.271 million individuals aged 3 and above in 40.478 million households with moving image capabilities (01/01/2024).

Panel Survey

As part of the structural survey, panel households are surveyed once a year (in writing: PAPI or online). Based on the collected household and personal characteristics, a multitude of target groups is formed, which are available for the analyses. Additionally, AGF utilizes these structural information to adjust the daily weighting of the AGF Panel.

External specifications

The selection of panel households is based on annually updated specifications, which are drawn from the AGF Video Potentials Study as of 01/01/2022. It consists of two elements: the Potentials Study, which AGF has conducted in collaboration with agof and agma since 2020, and AGF’s own Platform Study.

The Potentials Study consists of 20,000 representative interviews, which are conducted by telephone in two tranches (autumn wave of the preceding year plus spring wave).

The Platform Study consisting of another 5,000 cases is conducted by means of a sophisticated methodology under which the interviewers also visit the households, enabling them to obtain exact information concerning the pay-TV providers and streaming services that are used in the household.

As only respondents aged 14 and older can be questioned in the survey, the specifications for children aged 3 to 13 are supplemented with information from the Micro Census.

The target specifically for the “Platform” characteristic is additionally derived from the Platform Study as a further updating specification to describe pay-TV households. An audit conducted under the responsibility of the Deloitte accounting firm, which provides specifications for the distribution of Sky as the biggest provider in the German pay-TV Market, is additionally applied to represent the distribution within the Pay-TV segment as validly as possible.

The target specifications are updated at the turn of the year, as a general rule. The specifications for the “Platform” and “Sky” characteristics are additionally updated again as of 1 July of every year.

Recruitment

The recruitment of households for the AGF Panel is carried out through the following procedures: Based on a representative sample, households are contacted via CATI (Dual Frame 70/30) / Random Route, and in a short telephone interview, it is determined whether the household meets the specified requirements for the AGF Panel in terms of socio-demographic characteristics and reception situation (CATI screening). At least 70 percent of initial contacts are generated through this method.

Additionally, it is possible that initial contacts for certain target groups are also obtained through online contact or in the quota procedure. The proportion in this case should not exceed 30 percent of household recruitments per year. If a household is deemed suitable, a face-to-face recruitment interview for the AGF Panel is conducted. During this recruitment interview, additional information about the household is gathered analogously to the structural survey. After successful recruitment, the measurement technology is installed, and the household is included in the daily reporting.