Barb

The sole official currency for TV audience measurement in the UK, jointly owned by major broadcasters and the IPA, with no direct domestic competitor for its core service.

BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board) is the UK's joint industry currency for television audience measurement. Established as a non-profit organisation jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), BARB provides the official, industry-agreed data on how many people watch television in the UK, across all platforms and devices. Its panel of approximately 5,300 households — representing around 13,000 individuals — is used to generate nationally representative viewing estimates that underpin billions of pounds of TV advertising investment annually. BAR B's data is central to the UK television advertising ecosystem. Broadcasters use it to set and verify audience guarantees sold to advertisers, while media agencies and advertisers rely on it for campaign planning, post-campaign analysis and audience targeting. In recent years BARB has significantly expanded its measurement capabilities to cover streaming, on-demand and connected TV viewing, launching its Dovetail suite of products to capture viewing across broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) services and, more recently, subscription streaming platforms such as Netflix and Disney+. As the recognised currency for TV audience measurement in the UK, BARB occupies a uniquely authoritative market position with no direct domestic competitor for its core panel-based measurement service. It works with specialist research and technology partners — including Ipsos and RSMB — to operate its panel and process data, and its outputs are used by virtually every significant broadcaster, media agency and TV advertiser operating in the UK market.