BARB – the future

Jim Marshall says we need to review exactly how connected TVs, mobile phones and iPads etc are going to impact overall viewing and then get into a serious debate about effectively starting again with a single research system measuring cross media/platforms audiences…

I went to the BARB presentation last week, entitled the ‘Big Picture’. I tend to view BARB in the same way as oxygen – it’s essential to life as we know it, but it’s not a topic you want to spend a lot of time talking about and discussing with your friends.

Of course I’m being unfair; BARB is in good shape and quite correctly is highlighting the challenge TV measurement faces in the future – i.e. needing to integrate BARB TV audience data with TV viewing data, where the programmes are viewed on other devices and the data is provided from other sources. What BARB described as ‘batches of server data’.

Currently BARB estimates that around 98% of viewing still occurs on TV sets, consequently the remainder is tiny in comparison and stretches across any number of devises. So do we and BARB really need to worry at the moment?

The brave new world of connected TV’s and ever-improving 3G internet connectivity suggest that maybe we should, because TV viewing through the internet is set to increase. (This in turn could eat into BARB’s lunch, in terms of collection and analysis of viewing data – a problem I’m sure BARB is also thinking about.)

So BARB is probably right, the industry does need to start thinking about how to manage and integrate the data, though I’m not sure there is quite the urgency that BARB is suggesting. Also the problem is when you begin thinking about ‘the Big Picture’ in terms of TV audience data, it starts throw up all sorts of questions and challenges.

For starters: What should be measured, both in terms of content and commercial viewing? What should be combined with the ‘standard’ BARB viewing and over what time period? How much will this cost and, more importantly, who covers the cost?

And unfortunately it doesn’t end there. Inevitably it raises two even more taxing but fundamental questions:

1. If we are going to start combining audience data across platforms, wouldn’t it be simpler to have a single audience research system – a super BARB/NRS/RAJAR/POSTAR/UKOM?

And:

2. Should we be combining commercial audiences anyway? No-one can convince me that commercial viewing, even in exactly the same content, has the same effect, let alone the same value, when displayed on devices other than the TV – e.g. smartphones, pda’s, etc

On the first point, I can’t think that any sane person would argue against this. But, at the same time, I also can’t think that any sane person believes it will or even could happen given the legacies of the current individual medium based systems and the political hurdles it would involve, particularly with regard to who should pay for what.

On the second point, unless you believe that an impact is an impact, irrespective of where or when it is delivered (nobody does do they?), you have to start defining exclusions and/or weighting factors.

Phew, this research malarkey isn’t simple – no wonder all the researchers I know are absurdly intelligent but are aging quickly!

So, where do we go from here?

I feel that BARB has opened up and interesting debate but I’m not convinced that trying to find an answer now is going to deliver the right solution for the longer term. Why? Because I think the right answer is to have a single industry research system, which will measure audiences across all media and all platforms.

If we are really serious about integration then the audience measurement system needs to be integrated. Additionally, given the demands on all future measurement systems, this is likely to be the only affordable approach.

But, as already stated, there is no chance of this happening now. So I think we have to wait and adopt a strategy of upgrading our current systems, which in the main continue to work effectively and cover the vast proportion of current viewing.

We also have the splendid IPA Touchpoints, which provides cross media/cross channel planning data. All of this will continue be supplemented with ‘server data’, providing online activity. For the time being at least we can more than muddle through in this manner.

This then gives us the opportunity to review exactly how connected TV’s, mobile phones, iPads, PDA’s, etc, are going to impact on overall viewing and, as they become increasing significant (and not just for the TV industry) we can then get into a serious debate about effectively starting again and with a single research system measuring cross media/platforms audiences. But this can and only will happen when it has to.

So, for now we should adopt a strategy, which is hardly innovative or dynamic, but will probably save a lot of cost and angst in the short term and deliver the right solution in the longer term… that strategy being: ‘Do nothing immediately’.