BARB Adds Smartphones for Four-Screen Viewing Data

UK audience measurement body BARB has launched metrics for 'total four-screen viewing', adding smartphones to its existing coverage of unduplicated reach and time spent viewing across TV sets, tablets and PCs.

BARB has integrated data from the three screens since January 2020, reporting the total on its web site alongside consolidated seven-day TV set viewing. The extension of unduplicated reach and viewing time to smartphones builds on our established census-level reporting of BVOD viewing across all four devices, and makes use of router meter technology being installed in its panel homes, which allow measurement of average audience data and time spent viewing on smartphones across the full range of demographic groups.

The association uses its Dovetail Fusion process to report on people rather than devices, allowing it to report reach and incremental reach, as well as demographic profiles of the smartphone viewing audience.

Data from 7th July show that ITV2's Love Island delivered the largest smartphone audience for the week commencing July 5th, with episode 10 on the 7th delivering a four-screen total audience of 3.8m Individuals 4+, of whom 412,000 (10.7%) viewed on a smartphone. Of these, 46.6% were aged 16-24 and 75.8% were female. Meanwhile ITV showed the Euro 2020 football semi-final between England and Denmark, which delivered an audience across four screens of 18.3m: 660,000 were on devices other than TVs and 213,000 of these were smartphones. Data suggests that in the month of June smartphone viewing accounted for 0.31% of total four-screen viewing of programmes.

Web site: www.barb.co.uk .