BARB issues invitation to tender for five contracts

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020
BARB logo

Further to its earlier announcement on July 23rd, BARB, the UK television audience measurement currency, has today issued a refreshed invitation to tender which covers five research contracts:

  • Audience measurement panel & data collection
  • Survey design, methodology and auditing
  • Recruitment for panel setup
  • Broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) census data collection
  • Auditing of BVOD data collection

BARB continuously develops its service to meet industry needs. In recent years BARB has devised methods to report new ways of viewing television, including the use of broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) services on tablets, PCs and smartphones; pre-broadcast, non-linear and catch-up viewing up to 28 days after broadcast on TV sets and dynamically-served advertising.

The contract tender process comes as BARB looks to keep pace with continuing changes in how people watch television. These include the further development of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services and the roll-out of 5G mobile networks.

BARB’s multiple-screen programme viewing figures are generated by combining the data from the BARB panel with the census data collected from viewing on non-TV devices in a process called Dovetail Fusion. The contracts tendered today represent the collection processes for both these datasets.

Justin Sampson, BARB’s Chief Executive, said: “BARB’s trusted audience measurement currency relies on two high-quality data sources. People-based viewing figures – collected from a representative panel of UK homes – are complemented by a census dataset of viewing to BVOD services. The tender process is designed to identify best-in-class solutions that deliver the versatility to track people’s viewing behaviour throughout the 2020s.”

BARB’s services also rely on three research contracts that are not included in the tender process; Establishment Survey & panel recruitment (held by IPSOS), Dovetail Fusion data integration (Kantar), and provision of a content identification system (MetaBroadcast).

The current invitation to tender is available to potential suppliers.