Sampson is a former UK MD of AGB Nielsen, during which time the company was Barb’s research panel provider (it has since been replaced by Kantar Media), while before that he was director of customer relations for broadcaster ITV and managing director of the Radio Advertising Bureau.

He joins the organisation in August on a project basis to work with Thelin on several initiatives to deploy new measurement technology and data sources to measure changing audience behaviour. He’ll replace Thelin officially on 1 November.

Sampson said: “Viewers have a wide array of choices for how and when they watch their favourite programmes thanks to digital developments, while businesses have more and more data on patterns of behaviour. The challenge for Barb is to maintain its gold standard television audience measurement regardless of the platforms and devices used by viewers.”

He left ICM in February when his role was scrapped by parent company Creston in what was described as a cost-saving restructure. Thelin announced his resignation the same month.