Barb Promotes for New COO Role

UK audience measurement authority Barb has promoted Caroline Baxter to Chief Operating Officer, with a remit to work alongside CEO Justin Sampson on driving the organisation's move towards cross-device measurement and total campaign performance reporting.

Barb provides the industry standard for measuring and understanding what people watch, and therefore its currency for TV and video ad buying, including broadcast television, VOD streamers and video-sharing platforms. It uses a hybrid approach integrating people-based panel data with census-level online viewing data.

Priorities for this year include new metering technology for its reporting panel, due to expand to 7,000 UK homes and c.16,000 people, the largest increase in its sample in 43 years since its launch. Barb's multi-year contracts with principal research agency partners Ipsos, Kantar and RSMB run until the end of 2029. The body will also look to extend measurement of total viewing across all streaming services, including subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) and video-sharing services: this has already seen Disney+ and Netflix sign up to join Barb, although the organisation is thus far declining to comment on industry reports that Amazon Prime is also in the process of joining.

Baxter (pictured) spent much of her career at Kantar, latterly in the role of Media Program Director UK & EMEA. She joined Barb in 2022 as Research Operations Director, responsible for management of the in-house research and data science team, synthesising what suppliers can deliver with evolving data requirements from subscribers. Her new role retains these duties and adds more responsibility for organisational leadership and strategic direction.

Sampson says the body's most recent customer satisfaction survey shows confidence in its 'ability to deal with the future' has 'reached a new high watermark'. He adds: 'This bears testimony to the great progress we've made in delivering an audience-centric measurement strategy. Since joining, Caroline has brought a tangible energy and focus to how the Barb team brings service developments to market. The Barb board didn't hesitate in its support of her promotion'. Baxter herself comments: 'Our goal is to deliver a comprehensive and trusted measurement of viewing, regardless of delivery platform, for our subscribers. I'm proud to step into this new role, building on my work over the last two years, to lead delivery of the next generation of TV viewing measurement'.

Web site: 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.