Google has issued a legal “cease and desist” letter to Kantar Media and Barb, forcing the measurement companies to halt a service comparing YouTube and TV viewership.
Kantar Media and Barb began comparing YouTube content watched on TV with other TV channels towards the end of last year, calling it an “important milestone” in media measurement.
A YouTube spokesperson said that the service “violated” its own policies.
“YouTube has a long track record of providing access to third parties for research and reporting, and all third parties must respect the necessary terms of service and policies when using our API," they said. "While the vast majority of our partners, companies and creators adhere to these guidelines, we will take action when these terms are violated, as was the case here.”
Kantar Media has paused the service and is working with Google on a resolution, it confirmed to Campaign, adding: “We will not be commenting on confidential client discussions further at this time.”
Commercial TV body Thinkbox criticised YouTube’s decision, calling the video platform out for lack of transparency.
“It does seem odd that YouTube has spent so much effort trying to convince advertisers that they are TV and so gain the benefits of that reputation, but the moment there's some TV-like scrutiny they go legal to avoid it,” chief executive Lindsay Clay said.
“If they want to be treated like TV, they need to be transparent."
According to YouTube, it remains open and transparent with all measurement providers, but any partnership must align with its core principles of providing comprehensive, comparable and globally consistent measurement for advertisers.
Last year, Barb said the data collected was drawn from 200 channels that were selected based on volumes of viewing and categorised channels by type of content creator.
Kantar Media used audio-matching automatic content recognition, the same method used to identify programme viewing on linear channels and video-on-demand streamers, to identify when the 200 channels are watched by Barb panel members on their TV sets.
The audio-matching content recognition was the focus of Google’s complaint.
While YouTube has no direct integration with Barb today, the companies are in regular dialogue, according to the tech company.
YouTube's viewership figures in the UK are also externally measured by Ipsos/Iris, with ads measured via integrations with Nielsen, Audience Project and ISBA's Origin.
Barb declined to comment.
