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Google has forced UK television measurement groups Barb and Kantar to suspend a new “landmark” service that compares YouTube channel viewership with other TV channels and streamers.
The US tech group sent a legal “cease and desist” letter to Kantar over the new measurement service just months after it launched last summer, stopping them from accessing data that helped attribute viewing sessions to specific content creators, citing a breach of terms of service.
Barb, the industry standard for TV viewership, and Kantar Media last year announced what they called a “landmark initiative” to expand measurement of YouTube content watched on TV sets. This helps compare YouTube channels with the independent data collected on linear TV and streamers using the same methodology.
However, this service has now been suspended after YouTube sent the letter to the groups, according to two people familiar with the matter.
While those close to the dispute said Google did not agree that the service was representative of the platform’s viewership, the legal request related to how the service breached the terms of service around using its creator content.
The initial press release announcing the service showed that YouTube’s biggest channel for audiences viewing on TV sets was Peppa Pig. But even this only attracted 758,000 viewers during the week measured, or 1.2 per cent of all people aged over four who watched for at least three consecutive minutes. MrBeast — another hit creator — attracted just 319,000 viewers during the week, or 0.5 per cent of the available audience.
The dispute comes at a time of tensions between the TV industry and tech-led platforms that are increasingly luring many viewers, especially among younger audiences.
Barb and Kantar’s service had attempted to compare platforms and channels using the same methods.
UK regulators such as Ofcom are also taking a greater interest in internet and social media platforms as they assess whether their rules concerning TV and media are fit for purpose.
Kantar Media confirmed the “measurement service is paused” but declined to comment further on “confidential client discussions”. Barb declined to comment.
YouTube said it had a “long track record of providing access to third parties for research and reporting, and all third parties must respect the necessary terms of service and policies when using our API [application programming interface]”.
It added that where any actions on the platform do not adhere to its terms, YouTube “must act quickly and consistently to protect its ecosystem, including the rights of creators”.
Since 2021, Barb has reported how people watch content on YouTube that is distributed by TV companies, as well as how many people are watching YouTube on TV sets. That data is based on viewing taking place on TVs at home through a WiFi router.
YouTube’s viewership in the UK is also measured through Ipsos/Iris, with advertising assessed with Nielsen, AudienceProject and ISBA’s Origin, a measurement tool for advertising reach.
But Barb, which obtains its data from panels of audiences with meters on their TV sets, said last year that 200 YouTube channels would also become part of its daily audience reporting. The selection process categorised channels by type of content creator.
Kantar Media used audio-matching automatic content recognition to identify channels watched by Barb panel members on TV sets in a similar way to how it monitors viewing on TV channels and streamers. It was this audio-matching service, which used Google’s content creator APIs, that was the focus of the legal letter.