Broadcasters accuse YouTube of «massaging» view data to boost advertising business.

Netflix, the streaming service that produces hit shows like The Crown, joined Barb last year. Credit: Netflix

The ratings agency has now placed «restrictions» on YouTube's use of its data and has asked the tech firm to explain how it will bring its scheduling tools up to industry standards.

The conflict highlights the challenges it faces Barb as it looks to expand its offering beyond traditional TV viewing.

Netflix joined Barb last year in making viewing data publicly available in the UK for the first time. Disney+ also registered.

While US streaming giants have been reluctant to share audience data in the past, the move to cheaper ad-funded tiers has created a need for reliable viewing data.

Phil Smith, CEO of the United Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), said: «Advertisers have been demanding for years independent, verifiable commercial audience measurement for all forms of video and media media, instead of the disparate, proprietary solutions currently being offered.»

ISBA is developing its own cross-media measurement tool called Origin, which is funded in part by tech giants but has so far failed to attract broadcasters.

There is a significant discrepancy between the viewing data published by YouTube and the data published by YouTube. compiled by Barb.

In October, YouTube announced that 30 million people in the UK watched its videos on TV every month. Barb's equivalent data provided by The Telegraph puts the figure at just 17.7 million.

YouTube stated that this discrepancy was to be expected as Barb's data did not measure mobile views.

A spokesperson said: «We support viewable MRC display as the correct standard in cross media measurement and already included it to measure YouTube in third-party solutions, despite the fact that the standard is not fully implemented in any third-party solution today for several publishers around the world.

“We also provide clients with complete transparency of our methodologies in our own solutions. Our commitment to our customers has not changed: we will continue to provide high quality measurements using industry standards through a range of third parties and support the ISBA Origin project.”

A spokesperson for Barb said: “We are working with Google to establish how it can use Barb's industry-standard browsing data in a way that is consistent with how all other licensees use our data in accordance with the terms of our price list.»