BARB to work with additional data to understand “The Bigger Picture”
At BARB’s “Bigger Picture” event this morning, Bjarne Thelin, chief executive of BARB, appealed for more involvement from across the television and advertising industries to develop the potential of television measurement, and facilitate the coordinated use of additional data and so keep the measurement of television together – creating ‘the bigger picture’.
Bjarne explained that there are so many data sets within the industry, and that BARB needed to prioritise a ‘fuller view of the universe’, thereby recognising the strengths of the BARB panel approach alongside opportunities from other new connected data sources.
“There needs to be more coordination over industry-agreed definitions for new data sources, and more common purpose” he said. “Otherwise, the industry may end up with separate collections of incompatible data sets that are just floating around in empty space, occasionally bumping into each other.”
BARB’s tracking studies suggest that around 98% of domestic TV viewing still occurs on TV sets, particularly with HD and big screens.
However, capturing video beyond the TV set is now becoming deliverable and BARB is now prioritising ways in which types of viewing can be matched with batches of server data and activity logs that are held by lots of different organisations.
Commenting, Bjarne said: “We see an opportunity to liberate server data and, with panel data, give it greater meaning for the industry as a whole. Identifying batches of server data relating to specific slices of content or output and defining these equivalent slices of content, programming or commercials within BARB data needs common standards and definitions.
“The level of detail we’ll be able to capture will be dependent upon the level of industry priority and cooperation there is.
“Unless we persevere with this as an industry, we’ll end up in a few years’ time in a state of enlightened confusion – enlightened because we’ll have lots more data, but confused because we’ll have lost some of the basic meaning of it.”
Simon Bolus, research director at BARB, then explained how virtual meters will be placed in computers and laptops of existing BARB panellists, to ensure a single sample within all BARB household research. As soon as audio is picked up on the computer, a BARB prompt box will pop up asking who is watching, in the same manner as on the TV screen. This will allow BARB to be able to measure viewing time, reach, profile and any overlap with traditional TV viewing.
Simon laid out a prospective timeframe for this development at BARB, with the virtual meters initially being placed within 100 BARB panelists’ homes by the end of 2011. The results of this first trial will not be released publicly, but will form the basis of how this research will develop. The intention is for the meters to be in 1100 panelists home by the end of 2012, equating to 2800 individuals.
Richard Foan, communications & innovation director at ABC then explained how BARB are in conversation with ABC to look at server data for long-form video viewing, with the ability to measure unique browsers, number of downloads and the percentage of play on those downloads.
Following the headline presentations, a panel discussion took place, chaired by Nigel Walley, managing director of Decipher Media, with Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management and marketing at the London Business School; Neil Mortensen, research director at Thinkbox; Steve Wilcox, managing director of RSMB and Richard Foan, communications & innovation director at ABC.
At the end of the event, Bjarne invited the audience to come together to form a working group – The BARB Measurement Sciences Forum – of methodological experts, data structure and definition experts and data holders.
“We hope through our development projects that are now delivering solutions, to create the opportunity for the industry to be better informed, to track new types of content, to see beyond the TV set, and to pursue the enhanced solutions for connected TV.”