Weighting

Weighting is a method by which the importance of characteristics in the sample is adapted to the importance of the universe in order to ensure a more exact extrapolation or depiction. Each reporting person of the AGF Panel is assigned a weight to compensate for structural differences between sample and universe. If the structure of a sample is exactly identical to the structure of the universe, each person is assigned the weight of 1. In reality, however, some units are always either over-represented or under-represented. Over-represented units are given a weight of less than 1, under-represented units a weight of more than 1. Depending on the structure of daily reporting households, the weight assigned to the same person or household can change on a daily basis.

In the AGF Panel, weighting is performed every day in two steps:

1. Provisional weighting of usage data on the day after broadcast
2. Final weighting of these usage data after factoring in additional retrieval possibilities in the eight subsequent days