TV measurement

Tick-tock: Has time run out on TV measurement?

As our world has digitised and fragmented, Barb, the UK TV industry’s standard for understanding what people watch, has made great strides in its reporting. It is the first service in the world to attract the active involvement of streamers and has delivered under-the-bonnet improvements that harness the power of panel data and big data.

We gathered a leading panel to discuss who, if anyone, is still watching TV and whether the TV sector can still accurately measure viewing. Are advertisers, media agencies and the wider industry still interested in what we watch?

Audiences, advertisers and arithmetic: "‘We need to fix commercial measurement"

From left: Kate Bulkley, John Litster, Matt Hill, Rich Astley, Sarah Rose and Justin Sampson. Inset: The Little Drummer Girl (Credit: Paul Hampartsoumian/Shutterstock/BBC)

Television is trying to keep advertisers happy and out of the clutches of its online competitors. But, with the growth of streaming services such as Netflix, totting up who watches TV, and when and where, is becoming a complicated business.

This is the key data that advertisers want and which ratings body Barb is doing its utmost to provide, according to CEO Justin Sampson. He was part of a panel at an RTS early-evening event that drew a capacity crowd to The Hospital Club in late October.

Who is watching? The challenge of digital TV measurement | Full video

In the advent of technological development with the introduction of on demand, over-the-top, catch up, scroll back, apps, downloads and much more – can the TV industry keep up with the changes and the ever-growing need to measure TV viewing habits across devices, platforms and other new ways to watch?

Watch as experts discuss the challenge of digital TV measurement, and click here to read the full event report.