Barb, the industry’s standard for understanding what people watch, has released data from its Establishment Survey showing that 20.8 million UK homes (70.3 per cent) had access to a subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service in Q1 2026. This is slightly up from 20.6 million UK homes in Q4 2025. Netflix continued to lead the market in […]

Rakuten TV Enterprise, the B2B arm of Rakuten TV, has signed up with the official UK audience measurement JIC, becoming the latest streaming platform to be tracked by Barb. Owned by Rakuten Group, the European streamer will now have its audiences independently measured using Barb’s methodology – the same standard applied to broadcasters and major […]

Barb data shows that 5’s Streaming service has grown at a greater rate than any of its Broadcaster VoD (BVoD) competitors over the first quarter of 2026, at 25 per cent – measured by Barb TV viewing hours growth. The growth in 5 Streaming has been attributed to an array of UK original dramas including […]

Channel 4 delivered its biggest‑ever Q1 streaming audience across the start of 2026, as its content slate drove record viewing, attracted youth audiences and put it on track towards meeting its streaming targets. Barb data shows that the UK public service broadcaster attracted over 20 billion streaming minutes across the first three months of 2026 […]

Barb, the UK audience measurement specialist, has announced that Caroline Baxter has been appointed as Chief Executive. Baxter’s appointment comes as the company is on the verge of another wave of innovation designed to ensure the measurement and reporting of audiences to linear, streaming and video-sharing services is fit for the future. Since joining Barb […]

Barb, the UK audience measurement specialist, has added pre-campaign planning functionality to Barb Ads Hub, its new analytics system for full-cycle ad campaign planning and reporting. The inclusion of pre-campaign planning means Barb Ads Hub is now the single port of call for all UK advertising buyers and sellers’ pre- and post-campaign planning needs. Users […]

Barb, the audience measurement specialist, has published a first-time report entitled What People Watched in 2025. The report explores how people in the UK watched their favourite television show last year. It covers live and on-demand, linear and streaming viewing for broadcasters, streamers and video-sharing platforms. The findings include: Live viewing remains a substantial part […]

Barb, the audience measurement specialist, has released data from its Establishment Survey showing that 20.6 million UK homes (69.7 per cent) had access to at least one SVoD service in Q4 2025. This is slightly up from 20.5 million UK homes in Q3 2025. The service-level subscriptions data are as follows: Netflix: 18 million UK […]

Google has forced UK television measurement providers Barb and Kantar Media to suspend their “landmark service” that compares viewership on its video portal YouTube with other TV channels and streamers. The FT has reported that Google sent a legal ‘cease and desist’ letter to Kantar Media just months after it launched in July 2025, stopping […]

Barb, the audience measurement specialist, has launched Barb Ads Hub, a new analytics system designed for full-cycle ad campaign planning and reporting. At launch, Barb Ads Hub includes post-campaign analysis through CFlight, the joint-industry accountability tool for linear and VOD services. Pre-campaign planning functionality will follow in Q1. Built by RSMB for Barb in direct […]