BARB set to measure web TV audiences

Television measurement agency BARB is rolling out a new meter to measure viewing on PCs, laptops and tablets, which will provide more accurate information about the increasingly digital TV audience.

tvonline

BARB will initially launch the web TV viewing meter in 100 of its panel homes over the coming months. The agency aims to have about half of its participating households involved in the web measurement process by 2012.

The move follows a one year test period that identified developments to improve its web TV software and BARB anticipates further updates are likely to follow during the course of the staged rollout.

BARB’s new service aims to make it easier for broadcasters to access more accurate audience figures that will represent on-demand, web and linear viewing.

Bjarne Thelin, chief executive of BARB, says: “The prospect of a measurement which enables web TV viewing to be examined alongside television set viewing, from a single source, will have a number of applications. It’s likely that the greatest initial learnings will come from data aggregated over time.”

BARB provides in-home television viewing measurement data obtained from a panel of 5,100 homes in the UK.

The BBC and Channel 4 have both launched standalone measurement services to provide combined viewing figures across TV sets and their on demand services, iPlayer and 4oD, to reflect the way audiences are now watching programmes.

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