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Page 12
/ / Getting the balance right: a
view from the UK
Providing a media agency perspective on this
approach in a piece for Mediatel, Tom George of
MEC Europe offered the following commentary
on the value of BARB’s beta test:
“Joint industry
research bodies are often criticised for the speed at
which they move. This is perhaps inevitable when
a whole industry needs to align behind a new way
of doing things. And the advent of the Internet has
shaken up expectations of how quickly new forms
of accountability can be delivered. Equally, we
have to bear in mind that measuring activity on
the Internet is not as simple as it might have once
seemed. It only takes a small change in software
code or the adjustment of one parameter to come
up with a completely different answer. BARB has
a well-deserved reputation for delivering trusted
audience numbers and it would be doing all of us
a disservice if it launched the first set of numbers
that it could lay its hands on. This is why it’s impor-
tant that BARB has taken time to get this new data
launch right.”
1
From the TAM provider’s perspective, BARB’s
Justin Sampson explained to egta:
“We believe
that beta reporting is one way of striking a balance
between responsiveness and robustness. Beta re-
porting also helps to provide further context on the
pace of change. Online distribution is clearly becom-
ing an important part of the ecosystem, although
there is still hyperbole about the extent to which
it is drawing viewers away from more established
television platforms.”