MRG Evening Meeting: New BARB – The First Two Months

The new BARB contract was the topic of discussion at last night’s MRG evening meeting, where speakers David Cuff, Chris Hayward and Tony Wearne considered the pros and cons of the new TV ratings system.

David Cuff, executive vice president – commercial from Flextech Television, began the discussion by acknowledging that the industry needed to respond to changes in the broadcasting environment. However, he was critical of BARB’s handling of the new contract and explained that customers, which account for 30% of BARB’s revenues, had no say in the changes being made to the system, which he called “a muddle” and a “cock-up”.

He went on to attack BARB for not getting the new panel up to full strength quickly enough and said that inaccuracies in the data had cost the TV industry money and had damaged the credibility of the medium. He said confusion over commercial impacts had led to falling revenues and called on BARB to address the errors and set a firm date for the new panel.

Chris Hayward, broadcast director at Zenith, was also initially critical of the new BARB contract, which he said had left agencies in the lurch and was making it difficult for buyers to predict programming and meet their targets. He admitted that the drop in overall TV viewing was not as dramatic as first thought but called on BARB to “work night and day” to eradicate the bugs in the new system to instil confidence in the data.

Hayward said that the inconsistencies in the new BARB data had been detrimental to the “image and health” of the TV industry, which he claimed is already lagging in comparison with the internet and press.

Tony Wearne, research director of BARB, was quick to jump to the defence of the new contract and pointed out that the new panel included substantial universe changes and more station activity. He admitted that 1 January was probably not the best time to introduce the new system and said that substantial education and training would be needed to maintain it.

Wearne explained that a small number of houses had been removed from the panel in January and said that this had temporarily affected the data. He said that ongoing checks are underway and insisted that the quality of the data is constantly improving. He admitted that no “definite date” for the implementation of the full panel had been set but insisted that every effort was being made to get the new system up and running as quickly as possible.

MRG: www.mrg.org.uk

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