August 1st marks the 25th anniversary of the start of television audience reporting in the UK by the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (Barb), in 1981. Barb was founded by the BBC and ITV companies. The two then started to use Barb’s independently produced industry-standard television audience figures rather than the separate viewing estimates they had […]

There have been recent reports that ad-break viewing, rather than just programme viewing, is about to be reported in the US for the first time. This is seen as a major development which allows a clearer indication of the actual viewing of commercials rather than of the overall programme. This has been a feature of […]

All data is consolidated. Source: Barb/AGBNMR Arianna The programme audiences are influenced by the programme times and some matches may include the pre and post match discussions rather than just the match itself. *Viewing in Multi-Channel Homes Only

Latest edition of the Barb Bulletin containing updates about the service.

Barb is investing in new metering equipment for its current panel, facilitating measurement of new ways of accessing television content. To complement Barb’s recent introduction of reporting from Sky+ homes, the first use of the new meter is to identify time-shift viewing from other systems of disc playback – non-Sky+ PVR/DVRs and DVD recorders. The […]

Barb’s Chief Executive, Bjarne Thelin, today confirmed that a new measurement technique is starting field tests. It has been devised for the identification of the use of interactive applications. Speaking at the ‘interactive tv advertising show’ at the CBI Conference Centre, Bjarne Thelin outlined the development of the technique and its potential for expanding Barb’s […]

Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (Barb) announces today the launch of a new joint R&D initiative with RAJAR that will start to operate in January 2007. Barb has committed to involvement for one year, with the option to continue. A panel will be recruited for R&D purposes consisting of 500 reporting adults, within the M25 area. […]

In the eight-week period 6 March to 30 April 2006, time-shifted viewing accounted for 13.8% of all viewing by individuals in Sky+ homes (including guests). Approximately 40% of Sky+ individuals’ time-shift viewing took place on the same day as the original broadcast. Peak-time programming was subject to a greater degree of time-shift than the all-day […]

Together with the Future into View consultation, Barb considered key questions exercising the industry and developed scenarios prompted by such questions. UK Television Outlook – A View into the Future

Barb has reported the outcomes of its Future into View consultation process and its current work in shaping Barb’s planning priorities for the future of the service. The key areas of interest were: Viewer control – this is expected to increase substantially, due to more smaller channels; IPTV/broadband; transportable content; interactivity; more compact viewing devices; […]