Barb to measure online viewing
June 14, 2013
Barb, the official UK TV ratings body, will commence measuring usage of online catch-up services such as the BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Sky Go alongside traditional small screen viewing, from August.
The move will provide the first official measurement of the number of viewers downloading or streaming TV shows on PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Justin Sampson, chief executive of Barb, commented: “Our initial focus is on reporting the extent to which IP content is being downloaded or streamed. This is a significant step forward in our ambition to deliver cross-platform measurement of content.”
Barb said it plans to release a “TV player” report by the end of 2013 and has appointed the analytics firm Kantar Media to collect the data from computer devices.
“For the first time we will have a gold standard report into viewing to TV player services such as 4oD, BBC iPlayer, Demand 5, ITV Player and Sky Go,” Barb said.