BARB offers data across multiple screens
January 21, 2020
BARB, the UK television audience measurement currency, has started to report unduplicated programme reach and time spent viewing figures across multiple screens, marking the third deliverable from the four-stage Project Dovetail initiative.
The new figures are reported on a daily basis across three screens (TV sets, tablets and PCs), and are available through existing data-processing tools and bureaux.
BARB’s website features a new weekly viewing summary report which provides channel and PC/tablet reach, share and time spent viewing data based on BARB’s new definition of total TV, total three-screen viewing, that takes place within a rolling four-week period. Weekly data based on the previous definition of total TV, C7 TV set viewing (consolidated seven-day TV set viewing) are reported alongside for continuity.
BARB customers and data-processing bureaux can access daily respondent-level data within the new cross-platform panel viewing file (PVX), allowing more extensive analysis of unduplicated multiple-screen programme reach and time spent viewing. Users can conduct programme reach analyses for PCs and tablets, and incremental programme reach analyses for these devices over TV sets.
Justin Sampson, BARB’s Chief Executive, said: “Today’s launch marks the third phase of Project Dovetail, which meets the industry’s need for a trusted multiple-screen viewing currency. We began reporting census-level data for BVOD programmes in 2015, and then launched multiple-screen programme ratings in 2018. Now we are delivering unduplicated reach and time spent viewing across TV sets, tablets and PCs.”
“The fourth phase focuses on the performance of advertising campaigns across linear and BVOD formats. While we ensure these reach and frequency data meet the standards expected of BARB, the industry will have a beta campaign planning tool that projects the incremental reach delivered by BVOD services. We expect this to be ready for user testing in late March,” Sampson added
The new multiple-screen programme reach data benefit from the launch on January 1st of a new content ID system. In this system, linear and online content are linked across platforms; episodes are consistently linked to programmes; programme titles are standardised; and all programmes are independently assigned with a genre. This means that the Dovetail Fusion process which creates the new multiple-screen programme reach data can generate more accurate demographic profiles for viewing on non-TV devices.