NBC Universal and TiVo signed an agreement that will make NBC the first network to use TiVo’s StopWatch ratings service, which measures the popularity of shows and commercials.
The move comes as the industry is moving towards the C3 metric, which takes into consideration time-shifted viewing of programs and the percentage of viewers who skip through commercials on digital-video-recorder devices.
“This is a watershed moment for advertisers, broadcast and cable television and TiVo. We have been working tirelessly to help the media industry better understand and solve the significant strategic challenges they face in the age of the DVR,” TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers said in a statement. “Partnering with a TV powerhouse like NBC Universal to bring TiVo’s intuitive advertising solutions to a broad base of advertisers is a major step forward in the media industry’s efforts to make sure advertisers are able to adapt to the new world of DVR-based viewing.”
NBC will use the service on all of its broadcast and cable networks, as well as on all network owned-and-operated stations.
As part of the agreement, NBC will utilize TiVo’s Record Tags technology, which places an icon on screen from an advertiser during commercials, even when skipping through them. If a viewer clicks on the icon, it provides them with more information on the product or advertiser.
That NBC is the first programmer to utilize TiVo’s service is not surprising, given that Rogers is the former president of NBC Cable, where he created and launched CNBC and MSNBC.
