April 25, 2025, London, UK – Ad Signal, the SaaS company tackling challenges faced by media and entertainment organisations through advanced technology, has partnered with Barb, Clearcast and Kantar Media to help deliver the television industry’s first interim overnight commercial spots ratings.
This innovation has allowed preliminary data to become available in just two minutes, compared to the current eight-day wait for final figures, mirroring Barb’s interim to final programme ratings workflow.
The breakthrough solution is powered by Ad Signal’s Assure technology, which monitors live broadcasts across Barb-reported channels with 99.99% accuracy and matches detected ads with Clearcast’s library. This automated process provides advertisers with near real-time campaign insights through the Barb API while continuing to deliver Barb’s gold-standard verified data after broadcaster logs become available.
By replacing manual verification processes with automated monitoring, the solution also reduces TV measurement’s carbon footprint, aligning with Ad Signal’s core sustainability values.
Tom Gunning, CEO & Co-Founder of Ad Signal, said: “This collaboration has transformed how advertisers measure TV campaigns through the speed and accuracy of generating playout data. Our long-term collaboration with Clearcast provides access to cleared assets, and our partnership with Barb closes the loop with near real-time campaign log, while maintaining their gold standard accuracy. This has created a new industry model for commercial spot ratings.
“The UK TV advertising market is worth £5 billion, and every ad now played in the UK starts and ends with an Ad Signal product, as they pass through the Clearcast Library for clearance, and their playout data is reported by Assure. Over the next five years, we’ll track all UK TV adverts, setting new standards for data reliability and overnight insights.”
Jim Jarrett, Head of Research Operations at Barb, said: “Overnight commercial spot ratings give media agencies and advertisers earlier insight into how their campaigns are performing. This meets the long-standing demand from our clients to make TV ad campaign reporting more accountable, responsive and time-sensitive.”
On 8 April, Ad Signal’s Assure product became an Asset and Automation category winner in the 2025 NAB Show Product of the Year Awards in Las Vegas. This official awards program recognised some of the most significant and promising new products and technologies showcased by exhibitors at NAB Show.