OMeBa (Online Media Behaviour analytics) is a user-friendly data tool, which allows users to download and analyse the Ofcom/IPO surveys on infringement, online access and consumption behaviour in the UK.
In 2012, the UK’s communications regulator (Ofcom) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) with the market research company Kantar designed a unique survey that has been repeated in six waves (last in spring 2016). Identifying a need in the academic, policy and industry communities for direct access and easy readability of data in this area, CREATe developed a user-friendly tool, OMeBa, which not only allows users to consistently investigate trends from all six waves but also to perform some interesting cross tabulations, while the results are richly visualised.
More about the Surveys
The questionnaire survey involves 5000+ respondents each time. The original Ofcom design is very extensive and contains 520+ possible different questions with 5000+ data points each. Each of the questions in the raw dataset is expressed as a code, and a separate file connects those codes to the questions in natural language. OMeBa helps to simplify the process of browsing the survey data by linking these variable codes with questions in plain English taken from each of the surveys and allows easy extraction of the entire dataset or of selected variables in a popular format.
Example
For example, the data reveal that youngsters are the top spenders, top infringers and top legal consumers, at the same time! Specifically, in 2013 individuals of age 12-15 form the largest fraction (28.97%) of top spenders (spending more than £100 in past 3 months). Individuals of age 12-15 form the largest fraction of infringers (no legal download in past 3 months) - this fraction decreased from 27.59% in2013 to 25% in 2015. Surprisingly, individuals of age 12-15also form the largest fraction of totally legal consumers too (100% legal downloads in past 3 months) - this fraction decreased slightly from 26.6% in 2013 to 25.43% in 2015. This is just an illustrative example of the possibilities this interface is offering.
About
OMeBa (Online Media Behaviour Analytics) was developed by CREATe in 2016 to bring together seven Online Copyright Infringement (OCI) Tracker surveys carried out by Kantar on behalf of OFCOM and the Intellectual Property Office which look at over 5000 responses to 520+ questions relating to online behaviour, copyright infringement and digital consumption since May 2012. The surveys focus on six main types of online content: music, film, TV programmes, books, videos and computer software. The surveys were originally developed as a response to the obligation on OFCOM in the Digital Economy Act 2010 to monitor copyright infringement.
CREATe identified a need in the academic, policy and industry communities for direct access to these surveys and easy interpretation of each wave of data as an individual and as part of a longer study of online behaviour. OMeBa makes these seven waves of the study accessible for industry, researchers and policy makers by presenting an interface that will allow you to look at specific answers to the 520+ questions in the surveys. OMeBa connects the coded results with the original questions, allowing easy extraction of the entire dataset or of selected variables – for example, internet demography or spending. Results are presented in visual form, making it easy to understand. You can then cross tabulate the results and investigate the trends in online behaviour that interest you or your business in an easy and meaningful way. OMeBa also allows you to imported selected data from the surveys into statistical analysis packages. You can find out more about how to do this by looking at our Examples, at our Tutorial or by using the New Search function.
To find out more information about the original reports and to download the published data from each of the seven waves of the survey please click on the links below.
