News & Views

Barb, the UK industry’s standard for understanding what people watch, today announced it has made a commitment to work more closely with the Media Rating Council (MRC) by becoming a member of the US-based auditor of audience-measurement services.

Like Barb, the MRC’s sole focus is audience measurement. Established over 60 years ago at the request of US Congress, the MRC’s role is to provide the market with assurance that measurement is being conducted to acceptable standards.

Both organisations champion a shared language based on best practice, encourage full disclosure and work to a set of ethical, operational and audit standards that underpin an industry framework. Both Barb and MRC work with all parts of the industry with the objective of optimising comparability and reducing the possibility for conflicting evidence.

By becoming a MRC member, Barb will have a seat on the board of directors and will work with the MRC on how audience-measurement standards continue to evolve in a way that meets the needs of the media and advertising industry.

Barb employees will also have access to MRC’s confidential audit results, and participate in MRC’s accreditation proceedings for online platforms whose data are used alongside Barb data in cross-platform measurement solutions. This will help Barb better understand standards compliance as part of its own auditing programme.

George Ivie, CEO at Media Rating Council said:

“We have admired the work of Barb as it has evolved the UK’s audience-measurement system to embrace streaming services alongside broadcasters. We’re excited by Barb’s commitment to participate in the digital work of MRC and look forward to making the most of our mutual experience in meeting the industry’s need for audience-centric measurement.”

Justin Sampson, Chief Executive at Barb said:

“There’s something in the genes of our two organisations that makes this a very easy step for Barb to take. We’re both committed to best practice, the advocacy of a shared language across the industry and transparency on data-collection and compilation techniques. And there’s a good reason audience-measurement standards are high on the agenda — they’re vital for advertisers and agencies to confidently account for their media-advertising investment, and allow sellers to compete fairly for budgets.”