The diary-based Cross Media Insight system aims to track all the BBC content that a panel of viewers watches in a week – including live and timeshifted TV viewing, activity on the BBC’s websites, programmes viewed online via the iPlayer, and programmes viewed through third party sites such as YouTube.

Before now ratings have tended to focus on a particular media platform, with no way of telling how individuals ‘pick and mix’ content in different media. Director of audiences Helen Normoyle said the aim was to get a more “nuanced and segmented” view of the marketplace.

The panel of 650 people is composed of 500 from the BBC’s Pulse survey and 150 people who don’t have internet access.

A BBC spokesperson said the new tool was particularly important for understanding how young people are accessing BBC content, especially in the light of the BBC Trust’s recent review of services for young people.

The new tool will be rolled out internally in the autumn, and the corporation says it will share the learnings with other media owners, and is open to discussing how the tool could be used more widely in the industry.