The two contracts up for tender are for audience measurement panel and data publication – currently with Kantar Media – and survey design and methodology – currently with RSMB.

The new contracts will begin in 2023 and run for an initial period of six years.

Barb will also invite tenders for a panel set-up recruitment contract, which will be specified with the winning bid for the audience measurement panel and data publication contract.

The invitation to tender comes amid the continuing challenge of accurately measuring how people watch television as content and platforms evolve including subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services; the impact of 5G mobile networks; and monitoring existing technologies such as smart watches, augmented reality apps and virtual reality headsets.

Justin Sampson, Barb’s chief executive, said: “Barb is responsible for a trusted audience currency that delivers comparable reporting of viewing to programmes and commercials across a wide range of channels, services and platforms. Everything we do is guided by the need for independence, objectivity and transparency.

“We now deliver multiple-screen viewing figures through the Dovetail Fusion method. Our focus on this landmark development meant we chose to go into extra time on contracts at the heart of our television audience measurement services. We can now plan further developments of our service across the next decade from a position of strength.”

Barb’s television audience measurement service consists of seven separate contracts. The other five continue – establishment survey and panel recruitment (Ipsos MORI), a census-level count of online TV viewing (Kantar Media), Dovetail Fusion (Kantar Media), a content identification system (MetaBroadcast) and auditing the broadcasters’ application of tagging software (ABC).