The agreement means that, as an MRC member, Barb will have a seat on the board of directors, as well as working with the MRC on audience measurement standards in media and advertising.

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 tools.

The MRC was created by the US congress more than 60 years ago with the remit of providing the media market with assurance that audience measurement was being carried out to high standards.

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.

“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.”

George Ivie, chief executive officer at MRC, 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.”