Barb Bytes: Information on content 13 July 2011 Quarterly Reach Report Barb posts a 3 month reach report on its website within the ‘Viewing Figures’ section which demonstrates how channel reach builds up over time and shows that even very small channels are not just represented by a handful of homes. The very smallest Barb reported channel attains reach of ¼ million individuals over 3 months and most small channels exceed a million estimated reach in this time period. As well as reducing sampling error and variability better conclusions could sometimes be reached, or more relevant metrics created by summarising data over a period of time and examining the movement in the summarised figures. Product Placement Code From September, broadcasters will have the ability to log whether a programme contains a product placement and what it is. This information will be available in the programme data file, if provided by the broadcaster. Content Identification Also from September, broadcasters may allocate a unique code to programme content to enable linkage between different transmissions of the same programme. This will facilitate more straight forward analysis across multiple transmissions of single programmes, including the associated timeshift viewing for each transmission. (For clarification this approach is predominantly what makes up the BBCs ‘live +7’ reporting, to which the BBC then also align some data from their “istats” reporting). Barb Since 1981 The “Barb since 1981” section on the Barb website with the ‘TV Facts’ section contains details of each year’s top 10 programmes, marks the near hundredfold increase in Barb reported channels from the first 3 in 1981, together with notable developments for Barb and the broadcasting industry over this time.