TV since 1981

2023

January
Barb awarded panel expansion recruitment contract to Ipsos, to grow the nationally representative UK panel from 5,150 to 7,000 homes.

Barb also launched an API to give clients direct access to viewing data.
February
Barb committed to expanding its audience measurement to include all brand-safe content, including fit-for-TV content, on video-sharing platforms.

In recognition of this development, Barb changed its company name to Barb Audiences Ltd.
March
Barb’s Chief Executive, Justin Sampson, shared his views about why Barb will keep brand safety standards baked into its new ‘fit-for-TV’ model.
April
Barb upgraded its Advanced Campaign Hub (ACH) to enable advertiser and media agency users to plan genre-based campaigns and sponsorships on BVOD services.
May
Barb released data from its Establishment Survey showing that 19.08 million UK homes (67.4% of households) had access to a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in Q1 2023. This was a -1.7% decrease from 19.42 million in Q4 2022.
June
Jointly authored by Barb’s Chief Executive, Justin Sampson, and Work Research Managing Partner, Tony Regan, the IPA released a new report, ‘Signals in the Noise’. It outlined how the explosion of digital media has created an abundance of data, and why joint industry oversight of audience research in the form of the joint industry currencies (JICs) is so important.
July
Wimbledon’s enduring popularity drew an audience of 6.8m for the final on July 16th. Novak Djokovic was beaten by Carlos Alcaraz in five sets.
August
Barb released data from its Establishment Survey showing that 65.9% of UK households had access to a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in Q2 2023.

Netflix and Amazon Prime Video saw quarterly drops in the UK household penetration levels of their services. 57.7% of homes had access to Netflix in Q2 2023, down from 59.0% in Q1. 44.0% of homes had access to Amazon Prime Video in Q2 2023, down from 44.9% in Q1.

NOW remained level, with 7.1% UK household penetration in Q1 and Q2 2023, as did Apple TV+, with 6.6% penetration in both quarters.

Disney+ saw a slight gain, with 25.2% penetration in Q2 2023, up from 24.8% in Q1.
A new addition to the SVOD data this quarter is Paramount+. The service was present in 5.9% of UK households in Q2 2023.
September
Barb announced it is to assume governance responsibility for CFlight from January 2024.

Barb also upgraded its API to include all data available in its panel viewing file, including non-linear viewing on broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD), subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and video-sharing services and viewing on PCs, tablets and smartphones.
October
Barb issued an invitation to tender for its Establishment Survey and panel recruitment contract.
November
Barb outlined a timetable for the next major upgrade to CFlight: the availability of 14 widely-used traded audiences to enable buyers to assess campaign performance across these audiences.
December
Barb awarded three contracts for its audience measurement service: metadata and interim overnight programme logs to MetaBroadcast and interim overnight commercial spot logs to Clearcast.