Barb Overnight Commercial Audience Ratings Now in Beta

UK video audience measurement body Barb is gearing up to report commercial spot ratings overnight, working in partnership with Clearcast and AdSignal. The service has now entered beta testing.

The organisation, which was founded in 1981 by the major players in the UK television and advertising industry, already produces overnight programme logs to generate interim programme ratings - these are then updated after eight days when the broadcasters provide their own programme logs. The contract for Clearcast to deliver interim overnight commercial spot logs was one of three announced eighteen months ago, alongside two for established Barb partner firm MetaBroadcast.

For the new spot ratings, AdSignal will monitor the live broadcasts of Barb-reported commercial channels, and match the ads aired with Clearcast's ad library, allowing Barb to produce interim overnight reports of ratings for commercial spots. Clients can view these immediately via the Barb API and data bureaux, although the ratings are not finalised until eight days later when broadcasters' own commercial logs are published and the figures integrated.

Jim Jarrett, Barb's Head of Research Operations, comments: 'Overnight commercial spot ratings give media agencies and advertisers earlier insight into how their campaigns are performing. This meets the long-standing demand from our clients to make TV ad campaign reporting more accountable, responsive and time sensitive.' Dan Flynn, Deputy Research Director at the IPA adds: 'Agencies have long been asking for a single file which gives an earlier and more accurate picture of commercial audiences. This development is a welcome step in modernising trading systems and will mean that TV campaign performance can be assessed sooner than ever before.'

Web site: 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.