BARB Concentrates on Future of TV Measurement

The UK's Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) has launched a consultation process aimed at steering future developments in measurement of the increasingly advanced UK television market. For the time being, the complexity of TV measurement means that BARB will not be prioritising calls for cross-media measurement.

Almost 200 senior representatives from BARB's stakeholder yesterday attended 'Future into View', and heard Chief Exec Bjarne Thelin commit his organisation to deliver 'consensus industry needs at a price that the industry is prepared to fund. It aims for as comprehensive a measure as possible of TV viewing and to continue to provide the UK market with an objective, credible, gold-standard audience measurement service'.

Responses are invited until mid-September. During the autumn, BARB will be undertaking face to face meetings as well as group forums with representatives throughout the industry with a view to drawing conclusions from the consultation in the first quarter of 2006.

Thelin highlighted the challenge to measurement due to the huge range of TV-related devices on offer. 'There are more than 29,000 devices connected into BARB meters across the UK - and that number is increasing as more homes are getting more equipment and becoming more sophisticated'. In particular, the digital multi-channel environment would be the focus of future efforts, and raised 'important and difficult questions that needed working through by the industry' according to Thelin. Examples were which devices or functionality should be included, how they should be measured, and whether BARB should aim to deliver data in advance of 'trigger points' of potential penetration or viewing impact. He acknowledged the rising call for cross-media measurement but said that for the moment future developments in television required BARB's full attention.

Specific areas on which stakeholder views are sought include:

• new techniques already being assessed by BARB for their potential relevance to TV audience measurement, including people meter technology
• the averaging of some existing BARB data over periods of time - a technique recently in the news for US audience measurement, and a possible alternative to panel size hikes for reducing the variability in the figures for smaller channels
• transportable content in and out of the home
• broadcast content from non-broadcast devices such as PVRs, Video on Demand, and PCs
• the likelihood that trading of airtime will change
• personalised advertising and
• product placement.

There are likely to be trade-offs, warned Thelin: 'It will be impossible to deliver everything that everyone would like to see. But we hope to find a way forward which can deliver most people most of their requirements, and all people much of their requirements'.

BARB was set up in 1981 and is a not-for-profit limited company owned by BBC, ITV, Channel 4, five, BSkyB and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. It provides in-home TV viewing measurement for the UK via a panel of 5,100 homes and 11,500 viewers.

The full text of the session will be available next week on BARB's web site at www.barb.co.uk

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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