Barb, the television ratings and audience measurement organization, has announced an initiative in collaboration with Kantar Media to enhance its tracking of YouTube content watched on TV screens. Since 2021, Barb has monitored YouTube content distributed by TV companies. Now, in partnership with SeeViews, a company specializing in YouTube advertising campaign planning, Barb is selecting 200 YouTube channels to be included in its daily audience reporting. This selection will be based on viewing volume and categorized according to the type of content creator.
Kantar Media will use audio-matching automatic content recognition (ACR) technology to identify when Barb panel members watch these YouTube channels on their TV sets. Additionally, URL detection via router meters installed in Barb panel homes will confirm YouTube as the source. This method is the same technique Kantar Media already uses for tracking viewing on linear TV channels and VoD streaming platforms.
Justin Sampson, Chief Executive at Barb, said, “Barb’s innovation programme continues to bear fruit. In recent years we have gone beyond broadcasters and beyond linear to deliver a fundamental step-change in our industry’s understanding of how people watch programmes and ads. We’re now starting to deliver on a commitment to report more of the content people watch on YouTube. This commitment came off the back of an industry consultation which established a buy-side consensus on the need for transparent reporting of content with contextual indicators of quality. Our new data on the content people are watching on YouTube will meet several needs across our industry. Advertisers and media agencies are looking for more insight into the most-watched editorial environments on YouTube, while programme-makers use our data to inform the commissioning process. We also anticipate the data will be of interest to those working in industry regulation.”
Furthermore, Lucy Bristowe, CEO UK and Western Europe at Kantar Media said, “YouTube viewing on the TV set increased by 31% in the UK in 2024. This new initiative, underpinned by our advanced audio-matching technology, will help the industry to understand the growth of YouTube within the context of an increasingly fragmented viewing landscape. We are delighted to have reached this important milestone with Barb as part of our shared mission to understand what people watch.”
Barb plans to integrate viewing data from the selected YouTube channels into its daily audience reports starting in Q3 2025. This initiative follows a proof-of-concept pilot conducted in November 2024 by Kantar Media for Barb. The pilot tracked 175 videos from 12 popular YouTube channels, covering content such as children’s programming, celebrity YouTubers, and music videos. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of this methodology in capturing how Barb panel members watch selected YouTube content.
Additionally, with YouTube becoming an increasingly dominant platform for TV viewing, Barb’s expanded measurement aims to provide valuable insights for advertisers, content creators, and regulators. The new data is expected to play a key role in understanding audience behaviour on YouTube within the evolving media landscape.