BARB Awards Combined Contract to Ipsos Connect

UK audience research body BARB has awarded its newly combined Establishment Survey and Panel Recruitment contract to Ipsos Connect, from January 2016 for an initial three years. This combination replaces two previous contracts and follows a successful pilot study by BARB in 2014.

BARB (the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) delivers viewing figures for UK television audiences, and is funded by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising), and Sky. Its Establishment Survey provides viewer data on the demographic, device and platform landscape, and in turn, provides the dataset that determines the profile of the UK BARB panel. Interviewers for the Establishment Survey will now also be responsible for recruiting homes onto the panel itself.

After the pilot study, conducted by Ipsos MORI, BARB said combining the contracts could lead to a reduction of up to 90 days in the time between a home being contacted for the Establishment Survey and, if successfully recruited, becoming an active participant in the panel. The approach should also deliver 'robust recruitment rates, installation rates and panel balance'.

Simon Bolus (pictured), Research Director, explains: 'As the broadcast industry evolves, and new datasets are created, we need to ensure that we maintain the high standard of the core panel and the processes behind it. We have made great progress in understanding the changing landscape and an effective Establishment Survey is central to this. Our partnership with Ipsos Connect will ensure that is delivered'.

The two other major contracts that make up the BARB service are unaffected and run until the end of 2018: survey design and methodology by RSMB; and panel management, meter installation, data collection and data production by Kantar Media.

Web site: www.barb.co.uk .