Nielsen, TiVo to share viewer data
August 5, 2002
Nielsen Media Research and TiVo have agreed to measure viewing habits through the collection of TiVo recording data. This is huge: For the first time, when viewers record shows to watch later, their viewing will be counted in the total audience.
Nielsen should be proud of this move on both a technical and intellectual level, as it is an acknowledgement of viewing habits and a way to more precisely measure them. TiVo can brag about the TV-industry validation this deal will bring its equipment.
Below is the text of the memo Nielsen sent its clients this morning (and passed to me by a colleague in the industry).
August 5, 2002
To Clients of Nielsen Media Research:
I am pleased to report that Nielsen Media Research and TiVo have achieved a milestone in the measurement of Personal Video Recorder (PVR) activity.
Working together, Nielsen Media Research and TiVo have developed software that will enable the extraction of tuning, recording and playback information from TiVo's PVR system. TiVo has downloaded this new software as part of a normal system upgrade via phone lines to existing TiVo subscribers across the country.
This software would be used only by Nielsen Media Research to retrieve data from sample households, and only with permission from the household, as is the case with all homes in our samples. It is otherwise inactive in non-Nielsen homes.
Extracting data from TiVo devices is an important first step. The next steps are more extensive in scope, because they require that Nielsen Media Research develop entirely new business rules, editing and crediting criteria, new calculation and data processing software, and, ultimately, implement "playback-based" reporting systems. The goal is to fully credit PVR and other "time shifting" usage by integrating the data into our syndicated reports - the currency for more than $60 billion in advertising spending in the United States. This is a significant undertaking, as I am sure you will agree, requiring maximum cooperation between Nielsen Media Research and our clients.
There is no timetable yet for achieving these next steps, and we will be working with our clients to establish priorities. For the near term, we will continue to exclude households with PVR devices from our metered samples. In the first half of 2002, we have bypassed approximately 80 "basic" households from our metered samples of approximately 30,000 households, so the penetration of PVR devices is relatively small.
We have made progress, however, in developing some of the necessary business rules and editing criteria. This has been accomplished through work with national and local client advisory committees. We also recently installed 10 off-line test households equipped with TiVo PVR's, and we have been collecting data on a daily basis. In July, we began introducing TiVo free of charge into another 10 homes as they normally exit our National People Meter panel. By analyzing data from these sample households, we can determine the impact of the TiVo PVR upon established viewing patterns. And with TiVo data from 20 test households, we can begin to examine the influences of this PVR technology. We are now in the early stages of looking at data, and we intend to share our findings with clients.
Working with our clients, through established national and local client committees, we will map the path toward making data from PVR's and other "time-shifting" technologies fully reportable in Nielsen Media Research systems. Our success with TiVo is vital to this effort. There is a great deal of work before us, and Nielsen Media Research looks forward to sharing information about our progress with all of our clients.
Susan D. Whiting
President and Chief Executive Officer
Nielsen Media Research
