Barb, the body which measures UK audiences for broadcasters and streamers, has announced Caroline Baxter as its new Chief Operating Officer.
Baxter is currently the organisation’s Research Operations Director, a post she’s held since 2022, and previously worked for many years at Kantar where her final role was Media Program Director UK & EMEA.
Working alongside Chief Executive Justin Sampson, she’ll be responsible for ensuring progress on Barb’s strategic priorities to extend the reporting of total campaign performance, measurement of total viewing across all streaming services, and future-proof Barb’s data access.
Baxter’s priorities for this year include delivering significant developments across new metering technology for Barb’s reporting panel, due to expand across 7,000 UK homes or approximately 16,000 people.
This is the largest-ever increase in reporting sample since Barb’s launch in 1981 and is part of Barb’s multi-year contracts, which run until the end of 2029. These are key to delivering strategic developments via Barb’s principal research agency partners Kantar, Ipsos and RSMB.
Justin Sampson, Chief Executive at Barb, said: “Our most recent customer-satisfaction survey shows confidence in Barb’s ability to deal with the future has reached a new high watermark.
“This bears testimony to the great progress we’ve made in delivering an audience-centric measurement strategy. Since joining, Caroline has brought a tangible energy and focus to how the Barb team brings service developments to market. The Barb board didn’t hesitate in its support of her promotion.”
Caroline Baxter said: “Our goal is to deliver a comprehensive and trusted measurement of viewing, regardless of delivery platform, for our subscribers. I’m proud to step into this new role, building on my work over the last two years, to lead delivery of the next generation of TV viewing measurement.”