SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- MUSIC RESEARCH IN THE MIDDLE EAST
- Notice Date
- 8/30/2004
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541910
— Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling
- 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-04-0031
- Response Due
- 9/10/2004
- Archive Date
- 9/25/2004
- Point of Contact
- Lesley Isaac, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-619-1623, Fax 202-205-1921,
- E-Mail Address
-
lisaac@ibb.gov
- Description
- The Broadcasting Board of Governors/International Broadcasting Bureau (BBG/IBB), has a requirement, for a contractor to conduct a study of the musical tastes of young publics in the Middle East on behalf of the BBG's Arabic language radio service, Radio Sawa using the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items specified in Subpart 13.500 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Pursuant to FAR Subpart 12.603, the following constitute both the synopsis and the solicitation: (i) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplement with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; written proposals are herein being requested, and a separate solicitation will not be issued. (ii) The solicitation number for this procurement is CON-04-0031 and this solicitation is issued as a Request for Quotation (RFQ). (iii) Incorporated provisions and clauses incorporated in this solicitation document are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2001-24, Title 48, July 19, 2004. (iv) The Contracting Officer has found and determined that the nature of the services to be performed are appropriate for an "unrestricted" procurement in accordance with FAR Subpart 19.502 entitled "Setting aside acquisition". The NAICS Code for this procurement is 541910. (v) The contract line item and survey specifications are as follows: CLIN 1. Research shall be conducted by playing musical excerpts to a sample drawn from the target audience and recording reactions to a brief questionnaire designed to elicit listeners likes and dislikes, as well as the intensity of their preferences. RESPONSIBILITIES OF CONTRACTOR: The Contractor shall be responsible for preparation, oversight, and analysis of all research necessary to address the substantive topics of interest outlined above. This shall include: (1) Regular consultation, by phone and in person, with IBB staff and consultants to ensure common understanding of research objectives. (2) Selection of research sub-contractor(s) for field work. (3) Sub-contracting as required with selected field work providers. (4) Oversight of field work carried out on this project, including training of local sub-contractors in music research techniques (5) Drafting of research instrument(s). (6) Translation of research instrument(s) (may be handled by subcontractor) and back-translation for verification purposes (7) Ensuring provision of clean data by sub-contractor(s), to specifications outlined below (8) If necessary, arranging for acquisition of tape recorders and/or CD players for sub-contractor's field staff to allow music testing during interviews (9) Preparation of final, machine readable data file containing results of research in each location. DESCRIPTION OF REQUIRED FIELDWORK: The study shall be based on fieldwork as follows: SAMPLE. Research for fieldwork shall be carried out in Alexandria (Egypt), Amman (Jordan), and Abu Dhabi (UAE). The research shall be based on samples drawn from the target population for Radio Sawa. In the initial stage of sampling, recognized probability techniques shall be used to select households for screening to ascertain the presence of eligible household members. In the event that a selected household does not contain any members eligible for this study, or eligible members within the household refuse to participate, successive additional households shall be identified, again based on recognized probability techniques, until a substitute respondent has been successfully recruited. In no case shall more than one respondent be drawn from the same household. In each city, four separate sample of 25 respondents shall be drawn as follows: (a) males, age 17 - 23, (b) females, age 17 - 23, (c) males, age 24 - 29, (d) females, age 24 - 29. In addition, potential respondents shall be screened for the following characteristics: (1) All respondents shall be regular music listeners, listening to music by any means at least one hour each week and listening to music on the radio at least 30 minutes each week. (2) All respondents shall listen at least occasionally to Western, as well as Arabic artists. (3) All respondents shall either have completed secondary education or be currently enrolled in a secondary educational institution. (4) All respondent shall fall in SES categories A through C2. These screening criteria may be slightly modified, and further screening criteria may be identified by the IBB in consultation with the contractor prior to commencement of sampling and fieldwork. THE CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILTIES: The contractor shall be responsible for the project design, drafting, translation, formatting, pretesting, adaptation, and printing of the survey instruments; developing the sampling plan and screening procedures; training interviewers; supervising fieldwork; cleaning and encoding survey responses; entering and processing the data; preparing tabulations in data books; submitting data on diskette; and communicating all necessary information and results to IBB in a timely manner. FIELDWORK: The primary object of this research is to test respondents' familiarity with and reactions to individual musical selections, as identified by brief, easily recognizable excerpts, usually lasting between 5 and 10 seconds in length. Approximately 800 songs shall be tested. IBB will prepare and provide tapes or CDs ("hook tapes") of the musical excerpts to be used in this testing. DATA PROCESSING: The contractor is responsible for data entry, cleaning, and processing. The contractor shall provide printed tabulations of marginal results. The contractor shall provide data to IBB as a fully labeled SPSS "*.sav" file with a complete data dictionary of variable names and value labels. The contractor shall also provide raw data on computer diskettes in ASCII fixed format with accompanying codebook identifying location of all variables and coding scheme. 4) SUMMARY OF DELIVERABLES: (a) Raw data on computer diskette, with codebook; (b) Complete data set formatted as SPSS file; (c) Printed tabulations of results (d) Analytic report on survey findings; (vi) survey conducts to determine musical tastes of young public in the Middle East on behalf of the BBG's Arabic language radio service, Radio Sawa. (vii) DELIVERY SCHEDULE: Research shall begin as soon as possible after award of this contract but in no case later than September 30, 2004. Final report to be submitted no later than 3 weeks after the fieldwork (viii) The provisions at FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items is hereby incorporated by reference. [1] Offerors are reminded to submit their DUNS Number with their proposal. [2] Offerors responding to this RFQ shall include sufficient information in their technical proposal to address the technical evaluation criteria listed in item. (ix) below to enable IBB to objectively evaluate the offeror's capabilities/experience to successfully perform the work specified above. [3] 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. [4] Omission of any of the points of information requested will weigh against the offeror during the Contracting Officer's evaluation of the proposal. [5] The price quotation shall be submitted on a separate page from the Technical Capabilities/Experience information. [6] Offers not in compliance with this RFQ will be rejected. [7] Any travel undertaken in the fulfillment of this contract (purchase order) shall be performed in accordance with applicable U. S. Government regulations. Cost for such travel shall be included in the price quotation submitted by offerors for this project. (ix) FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation - Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. The Government will award a firm-fixed price contract (i.e., purchase order) resulting from this RFQ to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the RFQ will be the most advantageous to the Government based on: A) the offeror's Technical Capabilities/Experience (for which there are five (5) equally weighted subcriteria); and B) the offeror'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. Experience in conducting music research of the nature described in this SOW. 2. Experience in conducting music research in international settings. 3. Experience in conducting media research in the Middle East. 4. Planned method for recruiting respondents. 5. Ability to complete project in accordance to the schedule specified above in (vii) Delivery Schedule. (x) Offerors shall include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commerical Items, with its offer. (xi) The FAR Clause 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions--Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition-with no addenda to the clause. (xii) FAR Clause 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-- Commercial Items applies to this acquisition as well as the following clauses contained within FAR Clause 52.212-5: 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities; 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity (E.O. 11246); 52.222-35, Equal Opportunity for Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era, and Other Eligible Veterans (38 U.S.C. 4212); 52.222-36, Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities (29 U.S.C. 793), 52.222-37, Employment Reports on Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era and Other Eligible Veterans (38 U.S.C. 4212); 52.225-13, Restriction on Certain Foreign Purchases (E.o.s, proclamations, and statutes administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of Treasury); 52-232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Central Contractor Registration (31 U.S.C 3332); (xiii) The following FAR clause is also applicable to this acquisition: 52.222-22, Previous Contracts and Compliance Reports. There are no additional contract requirement(s) or terms and conditions (such as contract financing arrangements or warranty requirements) necessary for this acquisition other than those consistent with customary commercial practices. (xiv) The Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) and assigned rating is not applicable to this acquisition. (xv) None of the Numbered Notes are applicable to this acquisition. (xvi) Offers are due not later than 3 pm (EST), Friday, September 10, 2004. However, all questions related to this RFQ shall be in writing and submitted NLT Thursday, September 2, 2004. All responses and questions shall be sent directly to the Contracting Officer and they shall reference RFQ No. CON-04-0031. Responses and questions may be sent via either facsimile to (202) 205-1921; e-mail at lisaac@IBB.gov or by mail to: BBG/IBB, Office of Contracts, 330 C Street, SW, Room 2512, Washington, DC, Attn: Lesley D. Isaac Jr. Offerors responding to this RFQ shall submit to the above-listed Contracting Officer the following information by mail, facsimile, or e-mail, as part of their price quotation: unit and extended price for the above-listed line-item, prompt payment terms, correct remittance address if different from the quoter's mailing address, and a completed copy of the provision at FAR 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items. Full text of all FAR clauses and provisions are available electronically at the following Internet address: (http://www.arnet.gov/far). Oral price quotations will not be accepted for this procurement. (xvii) Any questions related to this proposed procurement shall be in writing and shall be sent directly and only to the Contracting Officer, Lesley D. Isaac Jr. NLT Thursday, September 2, 2004. All responsible sources may submit a price quotation, which will be considered.
- Record
- SN00659948-W 20040901/040831063601 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |