ThisisBigBrother.com - UK TV Forums

http://www.barb.co.uk/about/faq?_s=4

How does the audience measurement process work?

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BARB provides television audience data on a minute-by-minute basis for channels received within the UK. The data is available for reporting nationally for terrestrial, satellite and cable reception for both analogue and digital platforms and at ITV and BBC regional level.

Viewing estimates are obtained from a panel of television owning households representing the viewing behaviour of the 26+ million households within the UK. The reporting panel of 5,100 homes is selected to be representative of each ITV and BBC region. The service covers viewing within private households only.

Panel homes are selected via a multi-stage, stratified and un-clustered sample design so that the panel is representative of all television households across the whole of the UK. A range of individual and household characteristics are deployed as panel controls to ensure that the panel remains representative.

When a household agrees to join the panel their television sets, PVRs, VCRs etc. are electronically monitored by a meter. Each TV in a home is connected to its own meter which holds an electronic record for the set. The meter is a small box which is put close to each television set and connected to it. The meter automatically identifies and collects information about the channel that the panel member is viewing.

All panel household residents and their guests register their presence when in a room with a television set on. Each individual does this by pressing a button allocated to them on the peoplemeter handset. The metering system monitors all registrations made by each individual for each television in the home.

The panel member does not need to do anything else for BARB to capture the viewing in their household everyday. Throughout the day the meter system stores viewing undertaken by the entire household. Each night between 2am and 6am the data processing centre automatically downloads the data from panel homes (a process known as 'polling'). This procedure is carried out on every panel home every day to produce live 'overnight' minute-by-minute television viewing data.

VCR, DVDR, PVR playback and "catch-up" VOD services is reported if it takes place within 7 days of the original broadcast. This viewing (known as timeshift) is then added to the live data to produce the final, minute-by-minute consolidated audience, available 8 days after the original transmission date. Consolidated data is the ‘BARB Gold Standard’ that is used by the industry to report and trade on.

Channels reported by BARB provide detailed timings of the programmes and commercials they broadcast. The records that this produces are then matched to the minute-by-minute viewing data to produce the BARB official audience estimates for programmes and commercials.

How is the audience for a programme calculated?

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Programme audiences are calculated by averaging the audience of all minutes covered by the programme transmission, from the start-time of the programme until the end-time of the programme, but excluding any embedded commercial breaks and promotions.

What happens if you playback programmes from PVRs like Sky+? Is this included?

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Yes, non-live viewing from PVRs like Sky+ and other recording devices such as DVDRs are measured and included in the viewing figures as timeshift viewing. If a programme has been viewed on the same day as the original broadcast the viewing will be included in the overnight files as VOSDAL data, otherwise, if it has been viewed in the 7 days after the original broadcast it will be included in the consolidated data.