B -- AUDIENCE SURVEY ON SPANISH-LANGUAGE BROADCAST IN PERU

Notice Date

December 20, 2001

Contracting Office

Broadcasting Board of Governors, Associate Director for Management, Office of Contracts (M/CON), 330 C Street, SW, Room 2500, Washington, DC, 20237

ZIP Code

20237

Solicitation Number

CON-02-0004

Response Due

January 11, 2002

Point of Contact

Lesley Isaac, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-619-1623, Fax 202-205-1921, Email lisaac@ibb.gov -- Gloria Sweetney, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-619-1623, Fax 202-205-1921, Email gsweetney@ibb.gov

Description

This is a written Request for Quotation (RFQ) No. CON-02-0004 pursuant to procurement of the required services as described below using the "Simplified Acquisition Procedures" specified in Part 13 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Price quotations submitted in response to this RFQ that exceed the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (as specified in FAR Subpart 2.101, Definitions) will not be considered as responsive to this RFQ. The Broadcasting Board of Governors' International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) has a requirement, subject to the availability of funds, for a contractor to obtain quantitative data on the size, composition, and media habits of the audience for Voice of America (VOA) Spanish-language broadcasts in Peru. Quoters are herein requested to submit written price quotations and technical capabilities/experience information for conducting an audience survey as outlined below. SECTION A: SCOPE OF WORK 1) Nature of Survey. Audience data shall be obtained through a national survey of Spanish-speaking adults Peru that is designed to obtain the most accurate possible information about: the number of regular (i.e. weekly) and occasional listeners to VOA's broadcasts; the demographic characteristics and geographical distribution of the audience; the size of the regular and occasional listening audience for other international and domestic broadcasters; the previous-day usage patterns among audiences for radio and television broadcasts; awareness of international broadcasts available either directly or through local re-broadcasts; audience opinions as to the accuracy, reliability, quality, and relevance of programming from major radio and television broadcasters; and general patterns of media use. The interviewing shall be face-to-face and conducted in the home of the respondent by a trained interviewer. IBB will require demographic information on each respondent including, gender, age, education, and occupation. 2) General Responsibilities of Contractor. The contractor will be responsible for the project design and execution, including the following specific tasks: a) translation, formatting, pretesting, adaptation, and printing of IBB supplied questionnaires; b) developing the Sampling Plan; c) training interviewers; d) supervising fieldwork; e) cleaning and encoding survey responses; f) entering and processing the data; g) ascertaining the representativeness of the sample and weighting the data, if necessary; g) preparing cross-tabulations in data books; submitting data on diskette; and communicating all necessary information and results to IBB in a timely manner. 3) Sample Design. Interested quoters are herein requested to submit price quotations for a sample of 2,000 adults, age 15 or older, representative by gender, age, and education of the adult Spanish-speaking population of Peru. The sample shall be stratified to include sub-samples representative of each province. Apart from excluded areas noted, quoters may propose samples that exclude certain remote, less-populated areas deemed impractical to survey for reasons of logistics, security or excessive cost. Quotes shall describe the rationale for such proposed exclusions, as well as the estimated size of the population excluded, which should not total more than approximately 10% of the national population. The sample shall be drawn using recognized probability methods, all the way down to the selection of the individual respondent at the household level. Only one individual per household shall be selected, and at least three attempts shall be made to interview selected respondents before substitution is allowed. A detailed Sampling Plan, including stratification criteria, description of the sampling frame, listing of anticipated Primary Sampling Units (PSUs), approximate number of interviews in each, procedures for selecting households within PSUs, and procedures for selecting individual respondents at the household level, shall be submitted to and approved by IBB prior to commencement of any fieldwork. 4) Questionnaire. IBB will supply a set of questions (in Spanish) for an interview lasting approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour. The questionnaire will consist of approximately 70 questions, up to 5 of which may be open-ended. The contractor shall review this draft and make suggestions and comments based on the contractor's knowledge of local cultural or political sensitivities. Following receipt of the contractor's comments, IBB will approve a version of the questionnaire for pre-testing and review and approve changes recommended after pre-test results. Following IBB's review and final approval of such changes, the contractor shall produce final questionnaires in a form suitable for use by interviewers. The contractor shall be responsible for compiling a comprehensive list of both local and international broadcast media available in the local environment in the areas to be surveyed. This information should be submitted to IBB for approval prior to finalization of the questionnaire. Given the importance of measuring re-broadcast audiences for VOA programming on local stations, accurate pre-coded lists of local stations available in each sampled area must be included on all questionnaires, perhaps requiring the use of multiple questionnaire versions or coding sheets and showcards for different regions. 5) Pre-test. The questionnaire shall be pre-tested by the contractor prior to the commencement of any fieldwork. At least 25 pre-test interviews shall be conducted. The contractor shall provide IBB with a written report of the results of the pre-test, along with details of any problems encountered and suggested remedies, prior to the commencement of any fieldwork. 6) Fieldwork. Interviews shall be conducted by experienced field workers who shall be thoroughly briefed by the contractor prior to commencement of any work. The contractor shall ensure that interviewers are thoroughly familiar with household and respondent selection procedures, call back procedures, and the structure of the questionnaire, including routing and filtering. Interviewer training shall include practice sessions in administering the questionnaire. A minimum of 10% of interviews shall be back checked and 5% shall be accompanied by a team supervisor. The contractors' proposals shall include a description of the professional qualifications of the proposed interviewers and a description of the training that will be provided to interviewers to ensure proper understanding of the survey instrument. 7) Data Processing. The contractor is responsible for data entry, cleaning, and processing. The contractor shall provide printed tabulations of results, including percentage responses to all questions broken down by gender, age group, and educational level. Tabulations shall show weighted and unweighted base and response frequencies for each question. The contractor shall supply data to IBB as an SPSS for Windows syntax file (*.sps) file and as an SPSS (*.sav) file with a complete data dictionary of variable names and value labels. In addition, the contractor shall supply raw data in plain ASCII format, with codebook showing values and column locations of all variables. There shall be one data record for each respondent and records shall be of fixed length. If weights are used, weighting factors shall be in the same position on each record, with location specified in the codebook. Each record shall include a unique respondent ID number, interviewer ID number, PSU ID number, and codes for precise location and date of interview. Each record shall include demographic information about the respondent, including: gender, exact age, education level, occupation, and ethnicity. In addition to exact age, record for each respondent shall be coded by age group as follows: 15-24; 25-39; and 40+. This coding scheme shall be the age categories used in the printed tabulations mentioned above. 8) Technical Appendix. When delivering printed tabulations and raw data, the contractor shall provide a technical appendix which shall include the following: (a) A complete Sampling Plan, including list of PSUs and individual sampling points and number of interviews conducted in each (b) Details of response rates. (c) Interviewer instructions (d) A brief report on survey operations including any practical difficulties encountered in carrying out the survey (e) estimated sampling error. (f) Complete explanation of the weighting scheme including details of how weighting factors were developed and applied, as well as the demographic data on which weights were based. (g) A brief description of each local radio and television station covered in the survey, including: ownership, political affiliation (if any), years of operation, hours of broadcast, means of broadcast (i.e. AM, FM, etc), and general program content. 9) Summary of deliverables. See preceding paragraphs for detailed description of requirements for each deliverable. The four Deliverables to be provided to IBB by the contractor under this contract are as follows: (a) Raw data on diskette in plain ASCII format, with codebook ( b) Complete data set formatted as SPSS file (see description above under A.7) (c) Printed tabulations of results d. Technical appendix 10) Delivery Schedule. The contractor shall perform the work under this contract in accordance with the following Delivery Schedule: (a) Provision of detailed Sampling Plan to IBB within 2 weeks of the contractor receiving confirmation of contract award. (b) Submission of translated questionnaires within 2 weeks of the contractor's receipt of IBB draft. (c) Pretesting to be completed and pretest report submitted to IBB within 2 weeks of IBB's approval of the questionnaire translations. (d) After pretesting and IBB approval of pretest report, interviewing shall begin within 1 week and be completed within an additional 4 weeks. (e) Cleaned, verified data and a final report must be delivered to IBB no later than 6 weeks after conclusion of the fieldwork. SECTION B: SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES TO THE RFQ ( i.e. Price Quotations and Technical Information): In the event that price quotations for the work outlined in this RFQ significantly exceed IBB's budgetary limitations, IBB reserves the right to reduce the scope of the work specified herein. This could include reduction in the overall sample size and/or a reduction in the length and complexity of the questionnaire. Each quoter's response shall include sufficient quantitative/qualitative information on the following technical items to enable IBB to objectively evaluate the quoter's capabilities/experience to successfully perform the work specified in the above Section A of the RFQ: (A) A detailed description of the proposed research methodology, including specific listing of organizations the quoter shall use for any fieldwork; (B) Current information on the qualifications of quoter's office and field staff; (C) specific information on quoter's past experience in conducting media research and survey research in Peru and/or other Andean countries; (D) Detailed description of the proposed fieldwork plan, including Sampling Plan and procedures, number and type of sampling points and manner in which interviews will be allocated across the population; and (E) A schedule showing the time required for each phase of the project which would include (1) translation, pretest, reporting of pretest results and printing of final questionnaire, (2) completion of fieldwork, (3) completion of data verification, data entry and codebook, (4) delivery of data files and media environment/methodological report -- detailed description of the proposed research methodology, including specific listing of organizations the vendor will use for fieldwork (if sub-contractors are to be used); SECTION C: SPECIFIC TIMETABLES. Upon contract award, IBB will provide the contractor with an actual timetable for the completion of all phases of the work agreed upon, including precise dates when each portion of the work should be completed. Timetable shall be based on schedule submitted by vendor with bid, with any modifications to be mutually agreed upon by vendor and IBB. If delays in the work are required due to circumstances beyond the vendor's control, the reasons and anticipated length of such delays must be reported immediately to IBB and must be approved by IBB in writing. Unless written approval is granted by IBB, all deliverables must be received by IBB by the date specified in the timetable. IBB reserves the right to deduct 5% of the agreed upon payment for each week for which receipt of deliverables is delayed beyond the date specified in the timetable. SECTION D: SELECTION CRITERIA. A contract (i.e., Purchase Order) award will be made by the contracting Officer based on: A) the quoter's Technical Capabilities/Experience (for which there are (5) equally weighted subcriteria); and B) the quoter's Price Quotation. Of the two Selection Criteria, Technical Capabilities/Experience is the significantly dominant criterion over the price criterion. The Technical Capabilities/Experience subcriteria are as follows: 1. demonstrated experience in conducting quantitative research on broadcast media; 2. Demonstrated experience in conducting survey research in Peru and other Andean countries; 3. professional qualifications of key project leaders; 4. Quality of the proposed sampling technique; 5. Quality of the proposed procedures for data collection, entry, and verification; and 6. Ability to complete the project in a timely manner. In addition to specially addressing the above-stated technical items, a quoter's response to this RFQ shall also provide technical details on any proposed subcontractors who would be engaged to work on this project. Omission of any of the above-requested information pertaining the quoter and/or any subcontractors proposed by the quoter in performing this contract, will weight against the quoter during the Contracting Officer's evaluation of the quoter's response to this RFQ. Firms interested in the above described work are requested to submit their response to this RFQ i.e., Technical Capabilities/Experience and Schedule information, and Price Quotation) not later than the close of business (5:00 p.m. EST), Friday, January 11, 2002. And they shall reference this RFQ No. CON-02-0004 in their transmittal letter to the Contracting Officer. All questions (technical or otherwise by a prospective quoter regarding this RFQ shall be in writing. Any questions and the quoter's complete written response to this RFQ shall be sent directly and only to the Contracting Officer for this procurement, Mr. Lesley D. Isaac, Jr., via facsimile at (202) 205-1921. The price quotations submitted as part of a quoter's response to this RFQ shall be on a separate page from the above requested Technical Capabilities/Experience and schedule information. In addition to the quoter's proposed Total Contract Price, the quoter's Price quotation shall be further broken down into the following component prices: a) preparation work; b) fieldwork; c) data processing; d) report preparation; e) miscellaneous. The Contracting Officer has found and determined that this proposed work is appropriate for an "unrestricted" procurement pursuant to FAR Subpart 19.502 (Setting Aside Acquisition). All responsible sources may submit a price quotation which will be considered.=20

Web Link

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Record

Loren Data Corp. 20011224/BSOL001.HTM (D-354 SN5157C1)