Barb Names Suppliers for Panel Plus Elements
January 30 2025
Barb has commissioned two prototypes and two new data sources for its Panel Plus service, which fuses panel data with big data from return path and other sources.
Barb was founded in 1981 as BARB (the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) by the major players in the UK television and advertising industry, and is responsible for delivering the country's television audience ratings. Panel Plus builds on and replaces Dovetail, launched in 2018, Barb's first initiative to measure broadcasters' VOD services via fusion of panel and device data.
An invitation to tender was issued for Panel Plus in May last year, covering three components:
- design of a data fusion methodology to bring together panel data with return path data, first-party server data and BVOD census data
- development of software to process and deliver data from this, to a schedule and on demand, and
- selection of sources of TV viewing data, such as return path data and first-party server data, to fuse with and enhance the panel data.
The organisation has now commissioned two prototypes to cover the first two of these components, one from Kantar Media and another from RSMB and Sopra Steria. These suppliers will combine Barb's existing fusion of BVOD census data and panel data with two new complementary sources of return-path data for the third component, also announced today: Sky set-top boxes in 900,000 UK homes, sourced by Tvbeat; and connected TV sets with HBBTV software in 26 million homes, sourced by TVA.
The appointments mark the end of the Barb Panel Plus tender process, and the org says it will take a longer-term decision on the next phase of development in the final quarter of this year. COO
Caroline Baxter notes: 'For the past seven years, we have harnessed the complementary benefits of big data collected from devices in conjunction with data sourced from our representative UK panel of households. Big data provide a precise measurement of the volume of viewing; while panel data provide valuable insight into who and how many people are in front of the screen. By integrating further new sources of big data, Barb Panel Plus will enhance our audience measurement by improving data consistency, reducing zero-rated spots and facilitating insight into business outcomes for our clients'.
Home page:
www.barb.co.uk .
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
