Academic

The BARB website carries viewing data within the Viewing Figures section; TV Facts provides you with various facts such as Multi-Channel Development since 1992; BARB since 1981 lists the 10 most watched programmes for each year.

Within the Viewing Figures section you will find a weekly summary of the 5 main channels and the multi-channel broadcasters. By using the date selection tool you will be able to access data going back to January 1992.

If you are interested in how a specific programme has performed you may find the programme within the top 30s and the top 10s, which are updated every week on a Wednesday. The top 30s contains the top 30 programmes for BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Five and ‘Others’, which is a combined list of the top 30 programmes on all other channels. The top 10s are the top 10 programmes for every BARB reported channel, of which there are over 250. Viewing figures for all these channels are available since the beginning of 2008. There are, however, a few channels which will have data going back over several years. (You can find out which channels have historic viewing data by using the date selection tool.) The top 30 and top 10 programmes can be analysed by either selecting one channel and up to 4 weeks of data or multi-selecting channels and viewing the channels over 1 week (use your control key to select the channels you require).

The viewing data provided is based on all Individuals aged 4+.

The Monthly viewing figures provide the average weekly viewing and share for all BARB reported channels for the period and you will be able to select different months across different years for comparison using the date selection tool (use your control key to select the months you require). The data does not relate directly to full calendar months but to the closest 4 week or 5 week summary. (This is to account for the beginning/end of the month potentially falling mid-week.)

In Trend Graphs you will find 3 charts covering average weekly viewing, TV weekly reach and channel viewing share. The tools on the side of the charts will allow you to select specific years or channels for analysis.

Within TV Facts you will find information regarding the uptake of multi-channel television from 1992, annual shares of viewing across the 5 main channels from 1981 and the growth of television ownership since 1956.

Within the BARB Since 1981 section you will find major milestones within Television Audience Measurement from 1981, the reported channels for each year along with the top 10 programmes for that year. Only the highest rated programme for each series is listed otherwise the list of programmes would comprise multiple episodes of a small number of programmes.

If you want to find out how BARB actually works, what a panel member has to do and how the audience figures are produced, the section on Television Audience Measurement will guide you through the process. The FAQ section has many questions covering all aspects of the service which you may also find useful including 'How is the audience for a programme calculated?'

If you are unsure of the definitions for commonly used industry terms, for example, TVR (television rating), reach and impacts this section will help you.

Aside from the information that is available on the BARB website, you may find the websites listed in Useful Websites and Structure useful.

The trade publication Broadcast, published each week by Emap, provides BARB viewing data for the top 100 programmes for the previous week along with top 10s for different genres, such as Entertainment, Children and Multi-Channel.

If you require viewing data that is not available through any of these sources, you will need to subscribe to BARB. If it is a small amount of data that you require and it is for internal purposes only, you may access BARB data via a limited access registration. The limited access registration fee for data costing less than £500, purchased from a BARB registered data bureau, is £50 (this is in addition to the data fee). For data costing more than £500 (up to a maximum of £10,000), the limited access registration fee is 10% of the amount invoiced. If you are interested in accessing BARB data via a limited access registration, please contact one of the BARB registered data bureau.

If the data required is not for internal purposes, that is the data is to be shared with a third party or for publication, you will need to purchase a full subscription. The registration and subscription fees are outlined in the BARB rate card which can be found in How to Subscribe.

Please contact BARB if you intend to include BARB data in an article to be published in an academic journal.