TiVo dribbled out yet another announcement this week, this time announcing some more features of its ratings service. This time it’s a suite of new audience research and measurement capabilities that include the ability to determine what percentage of TiVo users exposed to a program promo ultimately tuned in to watch it.
On Monday, the company introduced a means of tracking both linear TV and over-the-top content. Yesterday, the company introduced a new remote control.
TiVo has always offered specific ratings and other metrics for each and every nationally aired advertisement and on-air promo spot, but TiVo proposes that the effectiveness of promotions can be better gauged by matching data on promotional spot viewership against viewership of the program being promoted.
The company says it has a “panel” of 35,000 TiVo subscribers who have opted in to have this data cross-referenced to identify what percentage of TiVo panelists exposed to a program promo at a certain frequency actually tuned in to the show itself.
TiVo says this ability will give networks a tool to understand how to optimize the use of their on-air inventory with different creative, dayparts and/or frequency to drive larger audiences for their programs.
Another feature, which TiVo is calling True Target Analysis, is essentially a set of new reporting capabilities to its True Target segmenting analysis tool. The new reporting categories will enable easy breakdowns and comparisons of viewership of programs and commercials across multiple segments, TiVo said. The activity of one specified True Target group can be measured against the viewing behavior of another to discover if, for example, one group may time-shift far more heavily than another.
Incremental Reach provides the ability to determine the incremental reach delivered by time-shifted viewing of a particular advertising campaign over any given period of time.
Elissa Lee, vice president of TiVo Audience Research & Measurement, said: “It is no longer sufficient to provide advertisers, brands and networks with just a few simple, stationary insights into what viewers are watching. We’ve recognized this for quite some time and are constantly looking to find new windows to see into television viewing habits, and [we] feel these three new ways will join the host of other customizable and deep offerings we have to provide the media industry with more accurate and robust metrics on just what their fans are watching and when they are watching it.”
TiVo will begin offering the newest version of its Stop||Watch ratings service, which includes these three new features, to customers beginning in September.