This Wednesday (12), Barb (Broadcaster’s Audience Research Board), the company responsible for measuring UK television audiences, announced a deal with Netflix to aggregate its audience reports. For the first time in streaming history, it will allow a censor board to reveal previews of its titles.
The most interesting aspect of this innovation is that UK subscribers can now see how many people are watching their favorite Netflix shows, track their viewing data and monitor its performance on the platform.
The site doesn’t release regular viewing metrics — though it occasionally communicates to its subscribers about a hit from its catalog — such as the one that revealed Round 6 was watched in 142 million homes worldwide.
In addition, these reports will be responsible for the Barb, which, in addition to traditional television, will start censoring streaming services from November 2021, finally making it possible to compare the audience of Netflix titles with UK TV shows. .
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Netflix UK measurements will start in November
Barb has already confirmed that Netflix’s metrics will be made public starting on the morning of November 2nd. As the agency reports data from over 300 other channels and platforms in the UK, metrics about service quality and the Netflix schedule are published daily in its audience reports.
While the innovation is an important step in the streaming platform’s history, it seems the negotiations took a long time to materialize.
According to Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings, the possibility of the two companies working together starting in 2019 has already been discussed.
“At the RDS conference in Cambridge in 2019, I was intrigued by the idea of independent measurement of Netflix’s audience. We have been in contact with Barb and are delighted to be confident in their reliable measurement of how people watch TV in the UK.
Reed Hastings, Co-CEO of Netflix
Although Netflix regularly reports analytics and ratings on viewing data, it’s worth remembering that Nielsen, the company that measures television audiences in the US, has never officially worked on streaming.
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