What BARB’s error reveals about the bizarre world of TV ratings
UPDATE: Jack Knight has written a fantastic comment on this
post, giving a lot more background to BARB and sampled ratings
in general. I highly recommend reading the comments after the
post. If you’re interested in the history of audience ratings, I
highly recommend reading ‘Rating The Audience: The Business of
Media’.   BARB – the organisation that measures ratings for UK
TV channels – has admitted that there were errors in its
tracking system, and as a result some Channel 4 and ITV shows
have ended up with false ratings. Broadcast Magazine’s article
says that one of the programmes given false ratings was ITV’s X
Factor – their highest rating show, and one of the biggest
advertising targets in broadcast television:  “The entertainment
show originally recorded an overnight audience of 8.96m (33.6%)
on ITV1 and ITV1 HD in figures released last Monday, but this
has now grown to 9.84m (36.91%) under the revised
data. Meanwhile, C4 shows including 9