The invitation to tender follows the awarding of long-term research contracts in June 2021 to aid Barb’s delivery of its UK television audience measurement service from January 2024.

As part of the awarding of the contracts, Barb announced an increase in its nationally representative panel of UK households from 5,150 homes to 7,000 homes.

The latest tender will invite companies to bid for a contract to recruit the additional households needed for the panel.

The invitation to tender will close on 7th November 2022, with a start date for the contract of 23rd January 2023.

Barb said it was particularly looking for tender applications that “demonstrate innovation” in engaging both potential recruits and recruited panel homes to participate in an ongoing television audience measurement panel.

The panel expansion builds on recent developments in Barb’s television audience reporting, including covering broadcaster video-on-demand services on multiple screens, non-linear programmes on TV sets, advertising or subscription video-on-demand services and video-sharing platforms, and dynamically-served advertising.

Justin Sampson, chief executive at Barb, said: “The forthcoming expansion of our reporting sample to 7,000 homes demonstrates the commitment of the UK’s television and advertising industry to the independent and objective insight that comes from panel-based measurement.

“We are now looking for a contractor with fresh ideas to help us deliver this panel expansion.”