TiVo to Measure Web Viewing on TV Sets

In the US, digital video recorder solutions provider TiVo has announced plans to begin tracking how much time consumers spend watching web content through its TV sets.

The company has been providing viewing statistics on linear TV and ads (in real time and time-shifted) since 2007 through its Stop||Watch second-by-second ratings service.

It also offer advertisers demographic data on TV viewers to help companies measure who is skipping over commercials, through its Power||Watch service.

With its latest launch, TiVo claims to be the first to offer measurements of both traditional linear television consumption and broadband consumption on the TV.

'We now have the ability to say people are spending X amount of time watching broadcast, Y watching cable, either in recorded mode or live and, then on broadband, streaming versus downloads, podcasts and user generated content,' TiVo CEO Tom Rogers told the NY Post.

TiVo currently tracks around 375,000 households and has a separate service that tracks computer usage in 35,000 households.

Elissa Lee, VP of TiVo Audience Research and Measurement describes the new service - which will launch next month - as 'a true game-changer for the media industry'.

Web site: www.tivo.com .