News & Views

Barb, the UK industry’s standard for understanding what people watch, together with its research partner Kantar Media, has today started to report TV-set viewing to YouTube channels. This landmark initiative makes Barb the first TV joint-industry measurement system in the world to incorporate viewing to YouTube channels.

This initiative builds on Barb’s established reporting of how people watch content on YouTube that’s distributed by TV companies, as well as service-level audiences for YouTube (1).

Barb has chosen 200 of the most-watched YouTube channels to become part of its regular audience reporting. The selected channels span a variety of interests and topics, including kids’ content such as Bluey and Peppa Pig; sports like FIFA and WWE; UK and international news and politics such as Fox News and Times News; entertainment like Doctor Who and Warner Bros. Entertainment and popular YouTubers such as MrBeast, Sidemen and Topper Guild (2).

To choose the 200 YouTube channels, Barb worked with SeeViews, an independent business that specialises in planning ad campaigns on YouTube. The selection was primarily based on volumes of viewing and considered whether the channels meet industry-agreed standards for brand safety (3).

From today, Barb clients can access a new weekly YouTube report in Barb’s client portal. This shows the weekly reach, share of total identified viewing on TV sets and total minutes viewed for each of the 200 YouTube channels. It also provides a demographic profile for each channel with information about the age and sex of viewers. An extract from the first report, showing the top 20 most-watched channels for the week ending July 20th, is in Appendix 1.

The weekly report doesn’t feature YouTube channels operated by TV companies as Barb includes this viewing in the audience figures it reports for the TV companies.

Caroline Baxter, Chief Operating Officer at Barb said:

“We are constantly innovating to keep pace with what people are watching today, without being constrained by the platforms or devices people watch on. We’ve gone beyond linear to report audiences to BVOD services, and we’ve gone beyond broadcasters to report audiences to the streamers.

“Now, using the same techniques we’ve been using for many years to report audiences to programmes on linear channels and streaming services, we’re breaking new ground again. This fresh, independent insight will shine a light on what people watch on YouTube for the first time, starting to answer the questions that are being asked across the advertising, programming and regulatory parts of our industry.”

To identify when the 200 selected YouTube channels are watched by Barb panel members at home, Kantar Media uses audio-matching automatic content recognition (ACR). This relies on access to the audio output of devices, which is only possible on TV sets. This technique is harnessed alongside URL detection via the WiFi router meters installed in Barb panel homes to confirm YouTube as the source. Audio-matching ACR is the same method Kantar Media uses to identify programme viewing on linear channels and streaming services.

Barb data show that TV sets account for the largest proportion of in-home, WiFi-based YouTube viewing. In the second quarter of 2025, TV-set viewing accounted for 43% of all this YouTube viewing among people aged 16+, ahead of smartphones at 32%. TV sets are also the most popular device for children aged 4-15, accounting for 53% of their in-home, WiFi-based YouTube viewing in the same quarter.

ENDS

APPENDIX 1: Weekly YouTube viewing by channel (TV set only) – week ending July 20th 2025

NOTES TO EDITORS

(1) Since 2021, Barb has reported how people watch TV companies’ YouTube content (viewed on a TV set, at home, through a WiFi router) and service-level audiences for YouTube (viewed across all devices, at home, through a WiFi router).

2 The full channel list is available to Barb clients in the client portal.

3 Barb worked with SeeViews to select the 200 YouTube channels. SeeViews has defined a five-stage process that automatically analyses content using industry-leading tools that allow fine-grained moderation insights into audio and visual content. Building on this process, an ongoing audit of the 200 channels draws on the recently published ISBA Responsible Media Guide.

Audio-matching ACR is used to identify when the 200 selected YouTube channels are watched by Barb panel members on TV sets. As ACR uses audio alone, certain types of YouTube channels and content had to be excluded from measurement: YouTube Shorts, live streaming, music/karaoke channels, and channels that only show clips and/or highlights with no unique commentary.

Additionally, to ensure the reporting of a cross-section of channels that generate audiences in Barb’s representative panel of UK homes, Barb put a cap on certain overrepresented genres.