BARB announces new chief executive

BARB has appointed Justin Sampson as its new chief executive. He will succeed Bjarne Thelin, who announced in February that he would be leaving at the end of the year after nine years at the helm.

Sampson will take up his post on 1 November to allow a handover period prior to Thelin’s departure.

Announcing the appointment, BARB chairman Nigel Walmsley said: “The board is delighted that Justin is to join us. His wide experience in senior roles in broadcasting, research, marketing and television audience measurement will be invaluable.  He will bring to the job both hands-on understanding of the core BARB gold standard service and an active engagement in digital media developments.”

Sampson’s most recent position was chairman of the ICM Group. Prior to that, he was UK managing director of AGB Nielsen. His previous positions include ITV’s director of customer relations, in which he was instrumental in the establishment of ThinkBox, and  managing director of the Radio Advertising Bureau.

Prior to taking up his CEO role, Justin will be joining BARB in mid August on a project basis to work with Bjarne some of BARB’s strategic projects to deploy new technology and data sources to measure changing audience behaviour.

Sampson said: “Viewers have a wide array of choices for how and when they watch their favourite programmes thanks to digital developments, while businesses have more and more data on patterns of behaviour. The challenge for BARB is to maintain its gold standard television audience measurement regardless of the platforms and devices used by viewers. Leading BARB’ strategy through this changing environment is an exciting prospect.”