BARB to Add Catch-Up Viewing Measure

From August, UK TV ratings body BARB will begin measuring catch-up viewing in addition to traditional screen viewing. The former includes services such as the BBC iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Player and Sky Go.

BARB has appointed Kantar Media to collect census data for TV viewing through all devices, including tablets, which it says will provide the first official measurement of the number of viewers that download and stream TV shows. This will be made possible by UK broadcasters agreeing to embed metadata tags into their programme content.

Field tests of an app in the early summer should lead to the rollout of a solution for measuring BARB panelists' viewing on tablets and smartphones by the end of the year. This will supplement the online viewing BARB is already tracking in 700 panel homes.

In addition, a TV Player Report will be launched by the end of the year as the first step towards BARB being able to dovetail both sources of measurement.

CEO Justin Sampson (pictured) comments: 'This news is pivotal as BARB will track audiences using metadata tags for the first time. This is a significant step forward in our ambition to deliver cross-platform measurement of content. The next step is to invite research companies to tender for the task of integrating this data with the viewing figures that our users are already familiar with.'

Web site: www.barb.co.uk .