Rajar, the radio audience measurement body funded by the BBC and commercial radio, has been fiercely criticised for abandoning its £3.5 million trial of an electronic alternative to its diary-based ratings system.

The move to shun electronic meters in favour of a new online survey system has come as a shock, with hopes that personal meter testing would be a more accurate system for recording listener numbers. In February, Rajar had to reissue listening figures for the fourth quarter of last year after realising that data published for hundreds of stations was incorrect.

Website Relaunch