MB Links with TiVo to Understand Viewer Segments

In the US, brand research specialist Millward Brown has partnered with digital video recorder (DVR) firm TiVo to enable its clients to better understand the TV viewing behaviour of their target audiences.

The partnership combines Millward Brown's custom consumer segmentation information with passively-observed TV viewing data collected by TiVo. The pair say this offering will provide brands with insights that include which programs and networks their target consumer segments are watching more frequently, when compared with the average TV viewer.

Millward Brown will offer advertisers the ability to field proprietary sets of questions to the Power||Watch panel of 35,000 TiVo subscribers. Respondents' answers will be used to assign individuals to specific behavioral and psychographic segments, and then Millward Brown will analyze, second-by-second, the aggregated viewing data for each group.

The TiVo Power||Watch ratings service covers all nationally distributed programs and commercials across all TV signal sources including digital cable, analog cable, satellite, telecom and over-the-air television, in live and time-shifted viewing.

'Our partnership with TiVo now allows us to offer a whole new, deeper level of insight on TV viewing behavior, by the segments that matter most to our clients,' stated Bill Pink, Millward Brown's SVP of Marketing Science.

Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement added that working with Millward Brown to help the agency's clients improve the targeting of their TV advertising, and to see firsthand how brands are, or are not, capturing the attention of TV viewers is a 'fantastic opportunity'.

Web sites: www.tivo.com and www.millwardbrown.com .