Barb to reveal TV co-viewing data for linear and streaming
Barb will begin reporting co-viewing factors for the first time this week alongside the launch of a new Trustmark to safeguard trust in UK TV audience measurement.
From Wednesday, companies that are part of Barb’s Trusted Data Delivery Network can display the Trustmark as a public signal that they take part in joint industry standards of audience measurement.
Starting this week, Barb will also publish data about co-viewing factors for selected audiences, such as the average number of people in a household watching TV together.
Barb will publish TV set co-viewing factors for any linear, VOD or streaming service with a share of more than 0.5% of total viewing.
Analysis: Streaming is a family thing too
A decade ago, household co-viewing rates used to differ substantially between linear (where a family typically watches together in a living room) and VOD (where individuals might stream Netflix or YouTube on their phone or tablet).
Today, according to Nielsen, there is virtually no difference for co-viewing rates in the US between linear and connected TV (CTV). Given how the US has seen more aggressive “cord-cutting” than in Europe, Barb’s new co-viewing figures (provided by Nielsen rival Kantar Media) should show this is an even stronger trend in the UK.
This matters as advertisers and their agencies demand simpler measurement (and therefore standards against which to buy and sell TV ads) across linear and CTV.
UK broadcasters, as well as newer Barb members such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon, will also be keen to show how streaming has come of age as a family activity.
“[Co-viewing measurement] is an increasingly interesting data point as the CTV market matures and subscription VOD suppliers start to offer advertising,” Wavemaker UK head of channel planning Emma Moorhead wrote in a Media Leader column in February.
“Having an accurate steer on ad campaign reach that is independently measured, for example by Barb, is essential to the future of TV advertising. Once that’s in place, it becomes even more important for advertisers to understand how many people are in front of the screen and who they are.”
Together with the launch of the Trustmark, Barb appears to be reinforcing its status as a joint industry currency amid accusations that online platforms continue to “mark their own homework”.
YouTube, the video-sharing behemoth owned by Google, shelved plans to launch its own co-viewing ad measurement plans at the end of last year. According to Digiday, US media agency executives were dissatisfied over how transparent YouTube was willing to be over how it calculated co-viewing.
The same report claimed that YouTube was due to start transacting on co-viewing measurement in October, but no announcement has yet been made.
By getting its co-viewing numbers out first, Barb will be hoping to set minimum expectations of what reasonable co-viewing numbers should look like. As more households watch YouTube on the TV set, demand will only increase among advertisers to see whether video clips can achieve comparable rates of co-viewing to films and established TV genres.
Barb CEO: Growing interest in co-viewing factors
Barb’s Trusted Data Delivery Network also includes companies that provide analytics services to organisations that rely on Barb data for a range of commercial and regulatory purposes.
These data-processing companies can now use Barb’s Trustmark as a quality-assurance indicator to demonstrate that their analytics services are reporting data that is compliant with industry standards.
Justin Sampson, Barb’s CEO, said: “Our ability to meet expected standards relies on many companies that are part of our Trusted Data Delivery Network. We’re pleased to have worked with many of these companies for several years and have been stimulated this year by conversations with other companies that have ideas for how we can deliver data in a way that’s both fresh and rigorous.
“The growing interest in co-viewing factors across our industry recognises a critical co-dependency. Data sourced from the devices people use to watch is reliant on real-life observations on human behaviour to identify how many people are watching and who they are watching with.”
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