TIVO and Nielsen – Marketing Your Information

Everyone has heard of a ‘Nielsen Family'. These are the people who provide networks with statistics regarding viewership. But have you ever heard of a TiVO family? Well, they are almost one in the same these days. Recently, TiVO and Nielsen have reached an agreement to share their information with one another with the goal of presenting more accurate viewership numbers to advertisers.

Many people do not understand how the TiVO business model works. They think that TiVO is in the business of selling subscriptions to their service. This is all well and good, but this is not where the real profits are made. When you use a TiVO, all of your viewing trends and shows are logged and can be brought up for reference. Now, this may sound un-secure, but it is fine. This is what has been going on with Nielsen for decades. With the combined strength of these two systems, viewer information will become more precise over the next years. This all translates into one thing – selling more advertising for the networks.