BARB Launches Website To Celebrate 25 Years

BARB is celebrating 25 years of TV reporting and has launched a website profiling its achievements as well as the big events in television which have occurred over the past quarter of a century.

The site, produced by MediaTel Group Business Solutions, as well as recapping on television history also gives audience figures for the top ten television programmes for each year from 1981 to the present day.

Some of the significant developments which have taken place in television since BARB started reporting in 1981 are the launch of satellite and cable services and changes to the shape of television sets, including wide screen and, more recently, flat screen variants and timeshift viewing.

The website also shows that since 1981, BARB reporting has grown from three channels to 227 in 2006. The first BARB panel was 3000 homes and the current panel is 5100 homes which reports for approximately 11,500 people daily. This represents more than 80,000 days viewing across a week.

In 1999, BARB was restructured and it is now a not-for-profit company with a membership comprising BBC, ITV, Channel Four, Five, BSkyB and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

BARB said: “As television continues to develop, BARB is committed to looking ahead in order to provide the best possible service for the industry. The ‘Future Into View’ consultation (see BARB Marks 25th Anniversary With Release Of Plans For The Future), the development of scenario projections, both shared with the industry by way of public presentations, and the launch of an exploratory programme regarding potential measurement techniques have all contributed to BARB’s forward thinking about the way that the audience measurement process may need to develop.

BARB 25 Years: www.barb.co.uk/25years