On the heels of yesterday’s announcement with NBC Universal, TiVo said today that it has signed an agreement with Carat for a comprehensive audience research agreement.
Carat, a global media communications network, will use TiVo’s research services to help its clients understand the impact of DVRs on viewing behavior, especially fast-forwarding through commercials.
As part of the research package, Carat is able to use TiVo’s Stop||Watch ratings service to access an anonymous sample of 20,000 TiVo households in order to research and analyze viewer behavior on a second-by-second basis. The data is offered via a sortable database designed to track the specific viewership for nationally run programs and advertisements in both a live and time-shifted viewing context.
“TiVo data adds a critical element to understanding what is really going on in DVR homes,” said Carat CEO Sarah Fay. “Having recently integrated our traditional and digital marketing capabilities, we were impressed with the depth and breadth of TiVo’s audience research services. This model for aggregating television audience viewing patterns complemented our vision for the future of marketing communications.”
Carat also will have access to TiVo’s newest research offering – the Power||Watch Consumer Panel. The Power||Watch service will provide Carat with access to demographic and viewing behavior data for 20,000 TiVo households who voluntarily opt to take part in the consumer panel. The Power||Watch service provides program and commercial ratings reports sorted by standard aggregate demographic dimensions, and the service also affords the opportunity for clients to survey the panelists to create custom segments for their brand.
Yesterday’s agreement between NBC Universal and TiVo gave NBCU’s 14 TV networks and 10 NBC owned-and-operated TV stations the rights to sell TiVo interactive tags in combination with other NBC products, as well as to subscribe to TiVo’s Stop||Watch commercial ratings service.
TiVo also announced today that it has partnered with Nero to integrate its TV user experience with Nero’s PC software.
Under the agreement, Nero will develop a software product that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer. Capitalizing on the growing PC-TV tuner market, the product will answer consumer demand for a PC-based DVR experience for use with the estimated 50.8 million PC-TV tuners that will be sold worldwide by 2011, according to an In-Stat research report published in April.
