UK Edition
Tech giants Facebook and YouTube thwarted in bid to secure slice of TV ad market
Facebook and YouTube have been given the cold shoulder by the industry body that measures television audiences, a blow to their attempts to lure advertisers away from traditional broadcasters.
The Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB), which measures viewing across channels and online video services, said the internet giants were unable to guarantee reliable viewing figures or that adverts would not appear next to offensive videos.
The tech companies are eager to be recognised by BARB since its data influences how advertisers assign their budgets. The body’s stamp of approval would mean more revenues shifting from traditional broadcasters into Facebook and Google’s pockets.
Google, which owns YouTube, is understood in particular to have been pushing for inclusion while Facebook is also making strides in video by investing in its own material.
Announcing the results of a consultation into whether the body should embrace such “online video services” Justin Sampson, BARB’s chief executive, outlined strict requirements on how the body can get data and guarantees on family-friendly material.
Sources said Facebook and YouTube are not considered to adhere to these requirements, and the announcement has been seen as a broadside to the tech companies.
“Online video services, such as Facebook and YouTube, are distributed solely through the internet and primarily to smartphones,” Mr Sampson said. “Content is more likely to be short-form and user-generated, and isn’t covered by broadcast regulations that ensure brand safe environments.”
He warned that the “joint industry currency principles that underpin BARB should not be weakened or compromised in any way”.
It it understood that while the door remains open for the companies to be recognised, their current measures are some way from the the standards BARB would be expected to meet.
Facebook and YouTube have been reluctant to allow the body to measure their viewing data, instead providing their own in a situation that has been described as “marking their own homework”. Videos are also uploaded by users, meaning they are not regulated in the same way that traditional broadcasters are.
Mr Sampson said this meant the companies could not guarantee that adverts would not appear alongside inappropriate videos. “Currently, advertisers and agencies can be confident about brand safety on TV because BARB only reports audiences for services that operate within regulated and, therefore, brand-safe environments,” he said.
Facebook and Google said they would continue to press to be recognised.
A Facebook spokesman said: “These are regular conversations that we have with our partners, and we are wholly supportive of industry measurement evolving to reflect a cross-channel world.”
Google’s UK boss Ronan Harris said: “Because our advertising and agency partners have asked us to make measurement comparable to other media, we remain committed to providing independent measurement that compares TV and online video side by side.
“We believe it’s in the ad industry’s best interest to have unified video audience measurement metrics and we are in advanced stages of joining and enabling TV Joint Industry Committees to measure YouTube in several countries.”
The companies have had success elsewhere. In Germany YouTube is measured alongside television by the AGF body, while Facebook last week won partial accreditation from the US Media Ratings Council.
The news comes ahead of a crucial week for Facebook’s boss Mark Zuckerberg who is due to address US politicians in Washington. He will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary and Commerce committees on Tuesday and Congress Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday over the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal.