Monday, May 10, 2021

Levelling up

Let me take you back to the week ending November 15th 2020.  The first episode of series 4 of the Netflix drama, The Crown, was released, to much media brouhaha.  Yet, measured against traditional broadcast ratings over a seven day period, it wouldn't have made the Top 15 shows in the UK for that week.  

It scored 3.7m viewers in those seven days, according to figures from the industry's measurement service, BARB. The Top 15 was propped up by an episode of Emmerdale at 5.8m, and headed by I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here, on 14.3m.  

From August/September, when the next big new tv season traditionally starts, we should get this sort of comparison on regular basis, with programmes from Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ – and PSB streaming services such as All 4 and BBC iPlayer – all being measured. 

The 5,000 BARB panel homes are being adjusted, so that they capture more wifi connections used by subscribers on their Smart TVs, alongside the old-style boxes traditional count of tv viewing.  Netflix is thought to be available in 50% of UK homes. 

The new system also makes sense of decisions to release all episodes alongside a linear broadcast launch. C4's drama It's A Sin, by Russell T Davies, had 5 episodes - and 4 million had consumed the final episode before broadcast, with the live transmission watched by 900,000. 


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