Broadcaster's Audience Research Board
Encyclopedia
The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, or BARB, is the organisation that compiles audience measurement
and television ratings in the United Kingdom
. It was created to replace a previous system, where the BBC
and ITV
companies compiled their own ratings, JICTAR. It is owned by the BBC, the ITV companies, Channel 4
, Five, BSkyB
and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
. Participating viewers have a box on top of their TV which tracks the programmes they watch.
Currently, BARB have approximately 5,100 homes (equating to approximately 11,500 individuals)1 participating in the panel. The box records exactly what programmes they watch, and the panellists indicate who is in the room watching by pressing a button on a remote control handset. The data are collected overnight and published as overnight ratings at around 9.30 the following morning for use by TV stations and the advertising industry. The following week, final figures are released which are a combination of the overnight figures with 'timeshift' figures (people recording a programme and watching it within a week). This means that with a total UK population of 58,789,194, according to the 2001 census, each viewer with a BARB reporting box represents over 5,000 people.
BARB numbers are extremely important to commercial television
stations. The trading model that is used by television companies and advertising agencies depends on the number of people watching the shows and the commercial attractiveness of those people (simplistically young/well off very attractive and older/poorer less attractive). The advertising agency will pay the television station a certain amount of money based on the number of people watching a show. The BARB numbers are used to work this out. The higher the BARB numbers, the more money a television station will make.
This leads to some interesting situations on the smaller channels. Since there are many television stations, and many hours in the day, there can be situations where BARB will record zero viewers for certain programmes. As the TV advertising system is geared round BARB ratings all but the very smallest channels subscribe to BARB.
Audience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
and television ratings in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. It was created to replace a previous system, where the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
companies compiled their own ratings, JICTAR. It is owned by the BBC, the ITV companies, Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, Five, BSkyB
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising is the trade body and professional institute for 250 leading agencies in the UK's advertising, media and marketing communications industry, covering the creative, digital, direct marketing, healthcare, media, outdoor, sales promotion and sponsorship...
. Participating viewers have a box on top of their TV which tracks the programmes they watch.
Currently, BARB have approximately 5,100 homes (equating to approximately 11,500 individuals)1 participating in the panel. The box records exactly what programmes they watch, and the panellists indicate who is in the room watching by pressing a button on a remote control handset. The data are collected overnight and published as overnight ratings at around 9.30 the following morning for use by TV stations and the advertising industry. The following week, final figures are released which are a combination of the overnight figures with 'timeshift' figures (people recording a programme and watching it within a week). This means that with a total UK population of 58,789,194, according to the 2001 census, each viewer with a BARB reporting box represents over 5,000 people.
BARB numbers are extremely important to commercial television
Commercial Television
Commercial Television was the third free-to-air broadcast television station in Hong Kong. It first went on air in 1975, and ceased transmissions in 1978.-History:...
stations. The trading model that is used by television companies and advertising agencies depends on the number of people watching the shows and the commercial attractiveness of those people (simplistically young/well off very attractive and older/poorer less attractive). The advertising agency will pay the television station a certain amount of money based on the number of people watching a show. The BARB numbers are used to work this out. The higher the BARB numbers, the more money a television station will make.
This leads to some interesting situations on the smaller channels. Since there are many television stations, and many hours in the day, there can be situations where BARB will record zero viewers for certain programmes. As the TV advertising system is geared round BARB ratings all but the very smallest channels subscribe to BARB.