Set-Top Data Can Vastly Improve TV Advertising — Once Thorny Issues Are Solved


To some, the way TV advertising continues to be bought and sold — based on the ratings from Nielsen Media Research — is a little bit bizarre.

It is, in the estimation of many who even depend on it for their livelihood, an antiquated polling process that tries to guess the opinions of a nation of millions of TV viewers based on the imperfect diaries of less than 20,000 homes. For example, Nielsen ratings assume by definition that every commercial in a show gets the same audience exposure.

“We know, logically, that's patently absurd that every commercial would get the same rating,” said TiVo vice president of audience research and measurement Todd Juenger. “Can you imagine buying Internet advertising on that basis?” (See sidebar, next page.)


Cover Story: Thinking Inside the Box - 2009-06-13 06:00:00 | Multichannel News