Did BARB always report viewers, not households, since 1981?
Question asked:
“Before BARB started in 1981, audience measurements in the UK were given as households, and BARB has always reported its ratings as number of people watching rather than households.”
Summary
Prior to BARB’s establishment in 1981, UK television audience figures were expressed in terms of households. Since its inception, BARB has measured viewership with people‑meters in a sample of households and reports the results as the number of individual viewers rather than household counts.
Sources 76 searched
- Audience Research (R9)
• TV Audience Figures: first shown on Daily Listening Barometer 29/06/1952 · BBC WAC Ref. R9/12/7 · • TV Daily Summary/Viewing Barometer: 06/10/1957 – 02/08/1981
- Numbers game: how reliable are the TV ratings?
Added together, their rival shares ... this was no longer acceptable, and recommended a single ratings system. In 1981, Barb finally began functioning....
- How are TV viewing figures calculated? How much of a programme do you have to watch before you are deemed to have "viewed" it? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk
Skip to main content · THERE is a panel, administered by BARB, of around 4,000 UK households, each of which has a monitoring device - a "peoplemeter" - attached to the television set(s). The 13,000-odd individuals in these households are taken to represent the entire viewing population, although ...
- Barb hit by channel resignation | Television industry | The Guardian
In an average week, GFK was recording ... 4, Five, BSkyB and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, only measures viewing in private households....
- Happy birthday, Barb | Television industry | The Guardian
Set up by the BBC and ITV companies ... Broadcasters' Audience Research Board - or Barb. Since 1981, Barb "reporting", as it is called, has grown from three channels then to 227 this year, something this not-for-profit company has done ...
- Barb stages ratings fightback | Television industry | The Guardian
8.30am: The TV ratings body has defended its data and said drops in viewing figures were due mainly to the programmes themselves, writes Matt Wells.
- Tracking 30 years of TV's most watched programmes - BBC News
Steven Spielberg's Jaws scored the highest ratings in 1981 with 23.3m viewers. In those days, before DVDs and movie channels, films regularly won the highest audiences - but no film has topped the Barb list since Crocodile Dundee in 1989.
- Tracking 30 years of TV's most watched programmes - BBC News
Second was the funeral of Diana ... this analysis that claims the 1981 royal wedding of Charles and Diana was watched by 28.40m viewers, putting it in seventh place....
- Barb Audiences - Wikipedia
Barb Audiences Ltd (formerly Broadcasters Audience Research Board) is a British organisation that compiles audience measurement and television ratings in the United Kingdom. It was created in 1981 to replace two previous systems whereby ITV ratings were compiled by JICTAR (Joint Industry Committee ...
- List of most watched television broadcasts in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
In the United Kingdom, viewing figures – the number of viewers or households watching a television programme – have been recorded by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) since 1981.
- Einschaltquote – Wikipedia
Seit 2024 wird das Projekt als ... damit sogenannte „Nuller-Reichweiten“ deutlich reduziert werden können. Vor der elektronischen Messung (1981 bis 1990) wurde der Kontinuierlichen Infratest (KIT) verwendet, bei dem die Einschaltquoten mittels Fernsehtagebuch erhoben ...
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