Advanced Television

BARB rolls out web TV measure

June 30, 2011

UK rating agency BARB is rolling out a new measure of TV viewing on PCs and tablets to provide more accurate information about the increasingly digital TV audience. It will launch the web TV viewing meter in 100 of its panel homes over the coming months. The agency aims to have about half of its participating households involved in the web measurement process by 2012.

The move follows a one-year test period that identified developments to improve its web TV software, and BARB anticipates further updates are likely to follow during the course of the staged rollout.

“The prospect of a measurement that enables web TV viewing to be examined alongside linear TV, from a single source, will have a number of applications. It’s likely the greatest initial insight will come from data aggregated over time,” said Bjarne Thelin CEO of BARB.

BARB provides in-home TV viewing measurement data obtained from a panel of 5,100 homes in the UK.

The BBC and Channel 4 have both launched standalone measurement services to provide combined viewing figures across linear TV and their on-demand services iPlayer and 4oD, to reflect the way audiences are now watching programmes.

Categories: Articles, OTT, Test & Monitor