The UK television industry has changed beyond recognition since Barb’s launch in 1981. Since then, we have continuously developed our audience currency in response to fragmenting behaviour patterns. There has been a proliferation of platforms, channels and catch-up services, and in recent years more people have started to watch television through the internet. Barb’s objective continues to be based on our customers’ requirement for a comprehensive and trusted measurement of viewing to programme and commercial content, regardless of delivery platform. To this end, Project Dovetail was established to deliver total reach of programme and commercial audiences across multiple screens. Our method for achieving this relies on two high-quality data sets: Barb’s panel of 7,000 homes delivers representative viewing information that included programme and campaign reach, demographic viewing profiles and measurement of viewers per screen. Barb collects device-based data whenever anyone in the UK watches a BVOD service on a tablet, PC or smartphone. These data provide a census-level measure of what’s been watched and for how long. These two sources are combined using a process called Dovetail Fusion. Multiple-screen programme viewing figures The three stages of Project Dovetail have used Dovetail Fusion to deliver multiple-screen programme viewing figures. These stages are: Collecting and reporting device-based census data – in 2015, we launched the TV player report – later the BVOD services report – which includes viewing time via all Barb-reported BVOD services on PCs, tablets and smartphones. Programme average audiences – since August 27th 2018, we have reported multiple-screen programme audience figures for all individuals across four screens: TV sets, tablets, PCs and smartphones. The weekly top programmes on four screens can be found in our dashboard. Barb clients can also analyse demographic profiles across four screens, TV sets, tablets, PCs and smartphones; these data are available through registered data-processing bureaux. Reach and time spent viewing – in January 2020, we began to report unduplicated reach and time spent viewing across three screens: TV sets, tablets and PCs. This total three-screen viewing was reported alongside consolidated seven-day TV set viewing, which had been our definition of total TV. In August 2021, we launched total four-screen viewing with the inclusion of smartphones. Barb customers and data-processing bureaux can access daily respondent-level data within the cross-platform panel viewing file (PVX), allowing more extensive analysis. Barb Panel Plus Barb Panel Plus is the next iteration, which will build on and replace Dovetail Fusion. Dovetail Fusion currently combines panel data with census data from BVOD services. Barb Panel Plus additionally seeks to embrace return path data, such as connected TV and set-top boxes, as well as first-party server data. Read an overview of how Barb measures total viewing. BVOD ad campaign planning and reporting 1. Advanced Campaign Hub In June 2020, we launched the Advanced Campaign Hub (then called the BVOD planner) to help agencies and advertisers plan advertising campaigns across Barb-reported commercial broadcasters’ linear channels and VOD platforms. This was the first joint-industry tool designed specifically to plan total TV campaign performance. In March 2021, Barb launched upgrades to the ACH to improve functionality and user experience. The improvements to the tool enabled the user to more effectively plan campaigns by optimising budgets across linear and BVOD platforms. The improvements also gave planners the ability to plan campaigns delivered on specific devices. In 2024, discovery+, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were added to the ACH, with Disney+ following in 2025. 2. CFlight The ACH complemented CFlight, an initiative from UK commercial broadcasters. CFlight was modelled on a methodology developed by RSMB based on the Barb gold standard. It provided post-campaign analysis alongside the pre-campaign planning services offered by Barb’s ACH to give advertisers and agencies a holistic view of their advertising campaigns. In January 2024, Barb assumed governance responsibility for CFlight. CFlight evolved to become a joint-industry campaign-reporting service overseen by buyers and sellers of advertising. New functionality was launched to allow users to review the frequency distribution of campaign and to assess campaign performance across a total of 14 target audiences which are widely used in trading. 3. Barb Ads Hub In 2026, Barb launched Barb Ads Hub, a new analytics system designed for full-cycle ad campaign planning and reporting. Barb Ads Hub is now the single port of call for all UK advertising buyers and sellers’ pre- and post-campaign planning needs. Users can estimate and evaluate campaign performance across linear and VOD services using Barb data and media owners’ first-party data. Barb Ads Hub houses the pre-campaign planner (formerly called Advanced Campaign Hub) for campaign forecasting and optimisation and post-campaign evaluation using the CFlight methodology, in a modern and intuitive interface. Users can run both standalone and customised reports with advanced data-visualisation capabilities. The system also supports automated requests via API for ingestion into proprietary tools. Access Barb Ads Hub.