Barb starts reporting TV set viewing of YouTube channels in world-first initiative
An extract from the first report, showing the top 20 most-watched channels for the week ending July 20
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UK audience-measurement organisation Barb Audiences and research partner Kantar Media have begun reporting on the YouTube content people watch on TV sets, with Peppa Pig’s official channel riding high.
Barb and Kantar announced their landmark initiative to start measuring the YouTube content people watch on TV sets earlier this year.
The first figures have now been released after Barb chose 200 of the most-watched YouTube channels to become part of its regular audience reporting.
From today, Barb clients can access a new weekly YouTube report in Barb’s client portal. This shows the weekly reach, share of total identified viewing on TV sets and total minutes viewed for each of the 200 channels.
It also provides a demographic profile for each channel with information about the age and sex of viewers.
The selected channels span a variety of interests and topics, with the top 20 dominated by those featuring kids’ content such as Bluey, JoBlo Animated Videos, Moonbug, Blippi and Baby Shark, with Peppa Pig in the number one most-viewed spot.
The overall list also features channels from sports bodies like FIFA and WWE, UK and international news and politics such as Fox News and Times News, entertainment like Doctor Who and Warner Bros Entertainment and popular YouTubers such as MrBeast, Sidemen and Topper Guild2.
To choose the 200 YouTube channels, Barb worked with SeeViews, an independent business that specialises in planning ad campaigns on YouTube. The selection was primarily based on volumes of viewing and considered whether the channels meet industry-agreed standards for brand safety. The weekly report doesn’t feature YouTube channels operated by TV companies, as Barb includes this viewing in the audience figures it reports for such firms, which it began doing in 2021.
The Peppa Pig YouTube channel holds the top spot in Barb’s rankings
Audio-matching automatic content recognition (ACR) is used to identify when the 200 selected YouTube channels are watched by Barb panel members on TV sets. As ACR uses audio alone, certain types of YouTube channels and content had to be excluded from measurement. These are YouTube Shorts, live streaming, music/karaoke channels and those that only show clips and/or highlights with no unique commentary.
Barb data shows that TV sets account for the largest proportion of in-home, WiFi-based YouTube viewing. In the second quarter of 2025, TV set viewing accounted for 43% of all this YouTube viewing among people aged 16 and above, ahead of smartphones at 32%.
TV sets are also the most popular device for children aged 4-15, accounting for 53% of their in-home, WiFi-based YouTube viewing in the same quarter.
UK media regulator Ofcom released data yesterday showing YouTube is the most popular first destination for kids when they switch on the TV, with one in five children heading straight to the video-sharing platform.
Caroline Baxter, chief operating officer at Barb, said: “We are constantly innovating to keep pace with what people are watching today, without being constrained by the platforms or devices people watch on. We’ve gone beyond linear to report audiences to broadcaster VoD services, and we’ve gone beyond broadcasters to report audiences to the streamers.
“Now, using the same techniques we’ve been using for many years to report audiences for programmes on linear channels and streaming services, we’re breaking new ground again. This fresh, independent insight will shine a light on what people watch on YouTube for the first time, starting to answer the questions that are being asked across the advertising, programming and regulatory parts of our industry.”
It comes as many countries wrestle with the huge popularity of YouTube among young audiences, with the Australian government this week banning under-16s from setting up accounts on the Google-owned platform.
