Quality assurance
Quality assurance plays a central role in the AGF system. AGF has set up a set of processes ranging from daily plausibility checks to regular logon discipline checks for panel participants to continuous monitoring and verification of panel composition.
AGF Videoforschung is fundamentally committed to the following main quality criteria:
Representativeness
The panel should represent the universe as realistically as possible. For this reason, AGF Videoforschung annually compares the panel structures against the values provided in the survey on the use of electronic media by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analyse (agma). This is based on a sample of tens of thousands of interviews and is weighted on the Micro Census.
To ensure the representativeness of the panel, the demographic structure of the panel must match that of the universe.
Other external specifications from the ma are relevant, including the regional distribution of households by federal state, administrative district and municipality size class, information on household size, education, and devices. In addition to socio-demographic characteristics, reception-specific characteristics also play a role for recruitment and are likewise taken from the external specification studies, such as the reception levels from the ma, platform information from the AGF platform study, and further information from audits.
Validity
To verify the validity of the AGF system and its results, the television viewing behavior of panel participants is compared to that of the population, particularly with respect to the length of TV usage at various times. AGF regulary commissions external quality controls. The External Coincidental Check (ECC) by Kantar is regularly performed for this purpose. It compares the reach levels measured in the panel with the results of a telephone survey representative of the population. The ECC is based on a representative random sample of over 8.000 CATI interviews.
Reliability
Getting reliable audience data depends on correct operation of the measurement device. AGF Videoforschung uses the Internal Coincidental Check (ICC) to verify logon behavior. This examines whether panel participants correctly log on and off of the remote control. For data protection reasons this examination is performed by GfK under the control of AGF. CATI interviews are conducted with a representative selection of approximately 1,500 households in the television panel.
The information is reviewed separately for each individual panel household and panel participant – down to the exact time – for conformity with the values measured in the respective household.
Due to the labor-intensive design of the examination, the ECC and ICC are not performed every year but rather at multiple-year intervals.