How the TV business tracks viewers/users will eventually be part of the privacy debate. So, for the record, here’s a service Tivo provides to the industry:
“TiVo’s Power||Watch(TM) ratings service provides advertisers access to second-by-second program and commercial ratings data, with demographic segmentations, for 20,000 households who have volunteered to take part in a “passive” consumer panel. The Power||Watch(TM) ratings service provides subscribers the ability to look at TV viewing broken down by standard household demographics including income, geography, ethnicity, number of children and tenure of TiVo subscriber, among others. TiVo can associate household data with the viewership data then produce program and commercial viewership reports by aggregate demographic and behavioral audience groups. All reports prepared by TiVo using this data are anonymous.
Subscribers to TiVo’s Stop||Watch(TM) ratings service and Power||Watch(TM) ratings service include: Omnicom Media Group, NBC Universal, CBS Corporation, The Interpublic Group, Starcom, Carat USA, MPMA, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, Media IQ and Euro RSCG New York.”
source: TiVo Announces Latest Results of Its Stop||Watch(TM) Commercial, Program Rankings. PR Newsire. August 20, 2008