The tenders will cover: audience measurement panel and data collection; survey design, methodology and auditing; recruitment for panel setup; broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD) census data collection: and auditing of the BVOD data collection.

The contract tender process will help Barb keep up with changes in how people watch television, including the development of subscription video-on-demand and the rollout of 5G mobile networks.

Barb generates viewing figures by combining data from its Barb panel with census data collected from viewing on non-TV devices, and the five tenders issued will cover the collection processes for both data sources.

The new tenders follow the extension of the tender process for two contracts - audience measurement panel and data publication, and survey design and methodology – earlier this summer due to the impact of Covid-19. The six-year contracts were due to start in 2023, but this was pushed back to 2024.

Three Barb research contracts are not included in the current tender process: establishment survey and panel recruitment, which is held by IPSOS; dovetail fusion data integration, which is held by Kantar; and provision of a content identification system, held by MetaBroadcast.

Justin Sampson, chief executive of Barb, said: “Barb’s trusted audience measurement currency relies on two high-quality data sources
“The tender process is designed to identify best-in-class solutions that deliver the versatility to track people’s viewing behaviour throughout the 2020s.”