Nielsen to measure TiVo usage

ny_cable_guy writes "The following letter went out to all of Nielsen's clients this morning: '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.' The full letter has been reprinted here on netWert."

Just to help calm any paranoia...

[xTK-421x]

Bob Poniatowski (aka TivoPony), TiVo's PR rep, posted here [tivocommunity.com] about how this doesn't monitor non-neilsen homes.

(Ripped from the post)
"'Every TiVo' is a gross overstatement. There is software we can enable if you're a Nielsen household. This software allows the Nielsen box to query the TiVo and find out what is currently being displayed onscreen. But you not only have to be a Nielsen family, meaning you opt-in to data collecting per their privacy policy, you also have to opt-in to data collection from TiVo, per our privacy policy. And, as I understand it, Nielsen comes out and does some serious wiring in your house. So it's not stealthy at all - the Nielsen households involved are well aware of what is happening. As far as how and what Nielsen measures or counts...you'd have to ask them! Again, this is only for Nielsen households - not 'every TiVo recorder'."

Not quite news....

[stevel]

This topic came up in the TiVo Community forum a few weeks ago, and there is a response from TiVo in the thread explaining exactly what is going on.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread. ph p?s=&threadid=68099

In part, "There is software we can enable if you're a Nielsen household. This software allows the Nielsen box to query the TiVo and find out what is currently being displayed onscreen.

"But you not only have to be a Nielsen family, meaning you opt-in to data collecting per their privacy policy, you also have to opt-in to data collection from TiVo, per our privacy policy. "

Good and bad...

[AlphaOne]

This is both good and bad news.

The good news is that PVRs are gaining acceptance in the broadcast industry. Rather than being undermined, they're being recognized.

It also means that there are enough PVR systems (TiVo specifically) in the world that the audience is significant.

The bad news is that the various networks use the ratings to price advertising and make scheduling choices.

Since one of the major features of a PVR is to be able to rewind and fast-forward at will, an obvious side-effect is you can simply skip commercials. This is bad for advertisers for obvious reasons.

There has already been reported discussion of a higher level of product placement and "text crawl" type advertising rather than traditional commercials. PVR-based ratings will either confirm or refute the speculation that PVR users view few or no advertisements.

This in turn could motivate programmers (broadcast, not code :) ) to find new and creative (and likely very annoying) ways to advertise to their audience.

A tivo owner that supports this

[millisa]

I am 100% for this method of data collection. Tivo has always been very supportive of the technical community. They do not try to block modifications to their systems and even build in features to assist (the new Tivo 3 software allows you to enter a certain area code in the dialing software to enable dhcp support if you happened to have put in a tivonet type card). They are supportive of me, I will be supportive of them.

As for the ratings systems, I'm all for them using my usage data as long as they keep it in an opt-in format. For those of you not familiar with Tivo, you can rate shows with up to three 'thumbs-up' or three down. The Tivo will use this data to pick out 'suggestions' on what you might want to see. You can also set priorities on your set recordings (season passes) so that say, Every Futurama episode is recorded, even though there is an anime showing on another channel at that time. In the event you don't have anything pre-set to record and the Tivo thinks you might like something, it'll record something else on if you've got the space. (after I watched the mining rescue on MSNBC one night, my tivo thought I might like to watch some other news type channels so it recorded an hour of the weather channel's 10 minute updates . . .thumbs down)

So, not only could the data be used on what I watched, but it could show how many times I watched it and whether or not I'm giving it anywhere from +3 to -3 on my viewing scale. I may end up watching Ricki Lake at Tivo's suggestion, but it doesn't mean I wish I had.

Re:what's the difference between spyware then

[Bleck]

Just a few points...

1) The Tivo system is *always* uploading new code to your Tivo ... that's why the software went from 1.0, to 2.0, to 2.5, to 3.0, etc. If the Tivo system *didn't* do this, you'd be stuck with three+ year-old technology. In other words, they do this all the time, and it's a *good* thing! :)

2) Notice that the software doesn't do anything except for Nielsen households. In other words, just like Nielsen families have special hardware on their TVs to let the system automatically report what they're watching, the new Tivo software lets Nielsen see what they're watching (or re-watching, etc.) via Tivo, rather than just that "the TV appears to be tuned to channel 3 for 72 hours straight."

So, if you're not a Nielsen household, this means nothing to you -- no activation, and no use for it even if there was. If you *are* a Nielsen household, it's just an improvement upon a system you've already signed up for.

--Tom