TiVo Matches TV Viewers With Their Web Usage

TiVo’s research unit is offering what it claims it is the largest data set in the industry for analyzing what consumers watch on TV and see on the Internet, with a sample of more than 100,000 households that uses online data supplied by Experian.

The TiVo Research and Analytics subsidiary’s TRA Cross Media Measurement service also cross-references TV and Internet media exposure data with consumer purchase data.

The sample is drawn from more than 500,000 TiVo DVR households for TV ad exposure and more than 70 million U.S. Internet households using Web browser cookies.

TiVo is working with Experian Marketing Services to match and aggregate viewer data -- anonymously -- at the household level across TV and online. In addition, the TRA Cross Media service is able to interpolate purchase data to for consumer packaged goods purchased in 60 million households across 20 grocery retail chains and automotive purchase records for 115 million households.

Last year, Nielsen launched a cross-platform analytics service that uses MediaMath's platform to analyze TV-Internet patterns by overlaying TV viewing behavior from Nielsen’s national television sample of more than 20,000 households with its 210,000-member online panel.

“The ability to understand whether a household is exposed to an advertiser’s campaigns, both on TV and online, and correlate that exposure to purchasing behavior, all using very large data sets to ensure better accuracy, is invaluable to the process of optimizing and allocating media campaigns,” TRA CEO Mark Lieberman said in a statement.

In 2009, TiVo had announced a deal with Quantcast, a Web-based audience insights service, to deliver a cross-platform audience analysis solutionwith a sample size of about total 35,000 households based on TiVo's PowerWatch ratings panel.

TiVo emphasized that the TRA Cross Media Measurement service does not collect personally identifiable information (including personal online surfing data) and said that users can opt out at any time using AdChoices process and tools.

TiVo acquired New York-based TRA in July 2012 for $20 million and renamed it TiVo Research and Analytics. TRA's name previously stood for "true ROI (return on investment) accountability." TRA clients include CBS, A+E Networks, Scripps Networks Interactive, ION Media, Procter & Gamble and Starcom MediaVest Group.

TiVo is scheduled to report earnings for the quarter and fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2013, after market close Tuesday.