TiVo offers up commercial data

Cory Bergman November 11th, 2006

As we’ve been reporting, the networks are battling Nielsen over a plan to release commercial ratings. And the nets are trying to convince media buyers to pay for augmented ratings from time-shifted viewing. So in the middle of all this, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers wrote a letter to the network research heads offering “unique data we can bring to the table for TiVo households and by proxy all DVR households.” TiVo’s data breaks viewing down to the second, which may help clear up disputes over Nielsen’s controversial plan to measure a commercial minute. And it would also provide hard details on how many people skip commercials when watching a time-shifted show. The commercial ratings debate is “so critical to the future of TV that we owe it to ourselves to make sure the discussions are as informed with as many pieces of the puzzle as possible,” Mr. Rogers said in his letter. TiVo would offer industry-wide summaries, but of course, the more detailed stats would be available for a fee.