Data quality statement: ACMA annual consumer survey

Data asset name

ACMA annual consumer survey datasets

Date

December 2022

Purpose

The ACMA’s annual consumer survey (ACS) is a nationally representative survey that explores consumer use, take-up and attitudes towards communications and media services of the Australian population aged 18 years and over. The ACS has been conducted annually since 2007, with a core time series of data tracked since 2017, providing insight into the shifts and changes over time. 

Data and insights from the ACS help to keep the ACMA up to date on market developments and consumer trends to provide an evidence base to inform our policy development and decision making and to assess the effectiveness of regulatory interventions. The ACS also assists in addressing the advisory, monitoring and reporting requirements under the Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005 and other associated acts, to report on the telecommunications industry and consumers of carriage services, service and industry trends in the broadcasting and internet industries and content services.

Description of data asset

The ACMA receives ACS data from the Social Research Centre (SRC) – the consultant commissioned to undertake this research work for the ACMA – as an IBM SPSS (.SAV) file and analysis tables and Q data tables (.QPack). Since 2021, the ACMA has used Q Research data analysis software to undertake statistical analysis and manage the ACS data. Prior to Q, the ACMA utilised IBM SPSS Statistics to analyse and manage the ACS data.

In 2021 and 2022, SPSS outputs in .SAV format were used to export the data files into .CSV format which form the basis of the ACS reporting in Power BI format on the ACMA website.

The full ACS dataset is not published publicly. Selected data from the 2017 to 2022 ACS was published on the ACMA website as part of the Communications and media in Australia report series. Each published report is accompanied by a separate accessibility file (.CSV) that includes the data used in each report.   

Legislation and authority

The dataset is not specifically connected to legislation but is collected as part of the ACMA’s responsibilities under the Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005 to report on the telecommunications industry and consumers of carriage services, service and industry trends in the broadcasting and internet industries and content services.

Scope and coverage

Publicly available data relating to the ACS represents data from the results of the annual survey. ACS data presented in charts or tables in ACMA published reports are published with .CSV accessibility files available to download. ACMA research reports featuring ACS data are usually released in .pdf or Power BI format.

Charts and reports published in Power BI format on the ACMA website provide members of the public, researchers and other interested stakeholders with the opportunity to view and interact with ACS data within the Power BI interface, which offers a range of filtering and analysis options. The data is not intended to be reproduced by other government departments.

All aspects of the ACS research are undertaken in accordance with the Research Society Code of Professional Practice, ISO 20252:2019 standards (Certification number MSR 20015, first issued by SAI Global, on 11 December 2007 and recertified on 4 November 2019 by ISO Experts for a further 3 years to 2022), the Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy (Market and Social Research) Code 2021.

All ACS data is deidentified by the SRC prior to delivery to the ACMA. All personal information is removed in a comprehensive manner to ensure that it is not possible to re-identify individual information from any aggregate records. Some panel profile variables (e.g., postcode and age in years) are not available. 

Reference period

Data collection commenced in May 2007 and is ongoing. Comparative timeseries data is available from 2017.

The ACS is usually collected in June each calendar year. The 2022 questionnaire was launched on 14 June 2022 and fieldwork ran until 27 June 2022.

Respondents are often asked to reflect on the past 6 months when answering ACS questions.

Frequency and timing

Data is collected annually, usually during June each year. 

ACS data is received by the ACMA for internal analysis at different points during the research period, coinciding with milestones in the ACS project. The dates below are from the 2022 ACS project timeline:

• In June, topline results (uncoded and unweighted), verbatims are received by the ACMA.
• In late June each year, code frame extensions are developed by the consultant approved by ACMA. Data in Q, SPSS and .XLSX/.CSV formats is received from the consultant.
• In mid-July and early August, the ACMA receives topline results (coded, unweighted and weighted) and .XLSX/.CSV cross tabulations.

From August onwards, weighted data from the full ACS data pack in Q or SPSS format is converted to .CSV by the ACS project team and passed to the ACMA’s Data teams to commence development work for ACS reporting in Power BI format on the ACMA website. As noted earlier, the ACS full data is not publicly available.

Formats available

ACS data is available in SPSS (.SAV) and Q formats, as well as .CSV format.

Publicly available versions of the data are available in.CSV format.

Other notes

A large proportion of ACS is time series data. Future ACS are dependent on the ACMA successfully managing previous versions of the survey so that time series observations can be accurately tracked, both by the ACMA and other stakeholders who follow the ACMA’s research program.