BARB Set to Launch New UK TV Panel

BARB - which provides weekly TV audience figures in the UK - has developed a new TV audience measurement service, featuring new methodologies, improved geographical design and a new viewing panel.

Non-profit organisation BARB started reporting UK TV audiences in 1981, providing the industry-standard audience measurement service for TV broadcasters and the ad industry.

Its new 'BARB 2010' system will go live in January, and will offer what BARB describes as a 'gold standard' currency for the industry.

RSMB has been involved in survey design and calculation methodology, while Ipsos MORI was commissioned to measure the characteristics of the TV-owning population.

A completely new panel is now in place, representative of the UK TV household population including better ethnic profiles and improved representation by multi-platform homes, as well as metropolitan, urban and rural populations.

TNS is responsible for the recruitment and maintenance of the new panel of 5100 homes representing 11,500 individuals; and for meter panel installation, data retrieval, processing and audience reporting.

The panel design is representative of the whole of the UK, with people recruited from all sectors of the population. All types of TV set viewing in the home are represented, and BARB measures analogue and digital delivery via cable, satellite and terrestrial distribution.

'While BARB 2010 won't be a radically different service at the outset, flexibility for the future has been created by changes in structure and methodology,' explained CEO Bjarne Thelin.

Thelin added that the service already monitors devices for on-demand playback (such as games consoles, PCs, set-top-boxes and other devices) where they are viewed through a TV set. He said that specific PC and laptop viewing solutions continue to be evaluated and, following much development by suppliers, hoped that a test panel could soon be created.

BARB, which is owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, five, BSkyB and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, is online at www.barb.co.uk .