Keeping the TV ecosystem healthy – Barb Data Hub

Every ecosystem has its own version of sunlight: the source of energy that keeps everything alive and in balance.

In the world of media and advertising, that sunlight is trusted evidence — data that is independently verified, collectively governed, and open to scrutiny from all parts of the industry.

But that balance is increasingly under strain.

Many parts of the ecosystem continue to prioritise closed-loop data, visible only to those who generate it. The companies that publish the numbers are setting the rules, defining the metrics, and validating the results. This casts a shadow over the rest of the ecosystem.

Barb was built to be the opposite of that. We’re the industry’s standard for understanding what people watch precisely because our data isn’t designed to advantage any one player. It’s designed to serve the entire ecosystem — broadcasters, advertisers, agencies, regulators, and audiences — in a way that keeps the whole system healthy.

Introducing the Barb Data Hub

The Barb Data Hub is our new central platform for storing, processing and delivering data — the beating heart of the measurement ecosystem. It modernises how customers and partners connect with Barb, giving them more flexibility in how they bring our evidence into their daily work.

Whether it’s through cloud shares, APIs, or tailored delivery services, the Hub offers more choice in how people receive and work with Barb data. The goal is simple; to make trusted measurement easier to access and apply, without compromising the standards that define it.

The Barb Data Hub doesn’t replace what makes Barb trusted – it amplifies it. The Barb Data Hub prioritises reliability while ensuring the data can now move more smoothly through the system.

A living system of standards

Barb’s strength has always come from joint-industry governance. Advertisers, agencies, broadcasters, and platforms all have a voice. That’s what keeps us independent, representative, and accountable to everyone the system serves.

The Barb Data Hub follows the same principles. It sits within the governance framework, designed to modernise without losing comparability. Every dataset that flows through the Barb Data Hub is anchored in agreed definitions, verified processes, and the standards that give Barb data its authority.

People at the core

And while technology speeds things up, one truth remains: devices capture signals, but meaning comes from people. Our reporting on co-viewing — how many people are watching together, and who they are — keeps us grounded in real behaviour, not just device activity.

The Barb Data Hub makes these people-centred insights easier to access and apply, helping the industry plan and trade with a clearer view of audiences as they really are.

Keeping the ecosystem strong

The Barb Trustmark launched a year ago, reaffirmed Barb’s role as the trusted guardian of quality in audience measurement. The launch of the Barb Data Hub builds on that foundation, making sure trusted data flows freely through every part of the ecosystem.

Ecosystems evolve, and so must the systems that support them. The Barb Data Hub is our way of ensuring that as viewing habits change, the standards that hold the industry together stay strong, connected, and relevant.

The flow continues — clear, accountable, and shared by everyone who depends on it, but now available directly through Barb, via a single, verifiable and trusted source that is the Barb Data Hub.

An industry standard, not a self-serve dashboard

There’s a wider point here that matters for the long-term health of the media economy.

When audience reporting relies on a single company’s own device logs, their own methodology, their own definitions of what counts as a view or an impression, the industry is being presented with“trust us” assurances. It may be efficient and convenient, but it isn’t independent.

And independence matters — not because we distrust innovation, but because we understand the consequences when the same participant acts as player, referee, and scorekeeper.

Barb offers something fundamentally different: data that is the product of joint-industry governance, not unilateral decision-making.

Our ecosystem works because broadcasters, agencies, advertisers, and regulators all have a say in how measurement evolves. No single company decides the rules. No platform can redefine “viewing” on its own terms. No commercial relationship can dilute methodological rigour.

That isn’t bureaucracy; it’s balance. It’s how ecosystems stay healthy.