BARB in the UK, and Ad Science and DoubleVerify for advertising in the US, will be the first external companies to measure the viewing habits of Netflix users
Facing the introduction of a new package, this one with advertisements, Netflix has closed, for the first time in its history, three different agreements -with BARB in the United Kingdom and with Ad Science and DoubleVerify in the USA- that will allow external measurements of the viewing habits of its users.
In the UK, Netflix has joined forces with BARB, which uses technology developed by Kantar to measure viewership across streaming platforms and generate daily reports on user consumption.
“Back in 2019, at the RTS conference in Cambridge, I welcomed the idea of Netflix audiences being measured independently,” commented Reed Hastings, Co-CEO of Netflix. “We’ve kept in touch with BARB since then and are pleased to make a commitment to its trusted measurement of how people watch television in the UK.”
“Our audience measurement continuously adapts to accommodate the new platforms and devices that are being used by people to watch their favourite television shows,” added Justin Sampson, Chief Executive of BARB. “We took a big step forward last year when we started reporting audiences to streaming services. Netflix’s commitment to BARB sends a clear signal that what we’re doing is valuable to new and established players in the market.”
For viewing beginning November 1, BARB will inform its customers of Netflix viewing every day on both a service and program level. This will be the same way it reports viewing over 300 other subscribed streaming channels, BVoD, AVoD and SVoD services. Netflix viewing data will be available to all BARB customers on the morning of November 2 through existing viewing analytics software and data processing offices.
In the US, meanwhile, the agreements with Ad Science and DoubleVerify focus on advertising, which will soon be integrated to Netflix’s offer into, presumably, the cheapest packages. Both companies will measure the viewing of advertisements, another new element whose deployment will be carried out soon by Netflix.
