Your TV is watching you!
 

In order to improve the processes of programming us and micro-managing our behavior, TiVo has incorporated some effective tracking technology into our entertainment centers. Read all (well, as much as they are telling us, anyway) about it...

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TiVo to Sell Reports on Users' TV Viewing Habits

NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo (news - web sites) Inc., a maker of television-recording devices, on Monday unveiled a TV audience measuring system that allows it to report the second-by-second viewing habits of its subscribers to advertisers and network programmers.

The system represents a potential new revenue stream for the maker of digital video recorders (DVR), which is trying to transform itself into a media services company and seeking other ways of making money beyond the monthly subscriber fees it collects.

The new service, which will produce a quarterly viewing report, would track a sample of TiVo's more than 700,000 users, whose DVRs allow them to record more than 40 hours of shows, pause live TV, instantly replay favorite scenes or fast-forward through commercials.

The report would, for example, tell advertisers which commercials audiences watched in their entirety during an episode of the comedy "Friends." It can also inform "Friends" creators that viewers changed the channel when a particular character entered the scene.

"With the Olympics -- as a reporter gives a heartwarming story about an athlete, TiVo tracks second-to-second what is causing viewers to stay tuned or what is causing them to flip over to something else," said Martin Yudkovitz, president of TiVo.

He noted that TiVo does not intend to compete with rival Nielsen Media Research, the ubiquitous voice in the television industry for tracking audience viewership. Instead, TiVo stresses that its service could perhaps be a companion to Nielsen data that advertisers and networks use to make decisions about programming.

Yudkovitz, a veteran of General Electric Co.'s NBC who was brought on in April to spur TiVo's media drive, added that TiVo has not signed any major clients. But he said it is confident that in a business where shifts in audience trends can sway millions in ad dollars, customers will find the data compelling.

TiVo allows its users to decline the monitoring of their viewing habits, but a spokesman said that most do not. The company has targeted total subscribers of 1 million by early 2004, which would give it a robust sample of technology-savvy and better-than-average income TV watchers.
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I thought this part was good:
"TiVo allows its users to decline the monitoring of their viewing habits, but a spokesman said that most do not."

It's really comforting to know we are so secure and sure of our rock-solid resistance to silly things like the increasing power of targeted advertising and such not to bother turning off thought-control settings when they are put in front of us.

At least there is a way to turn off the tracking! Although, its probably buried under 18 submenus and not included in the manual.

Exactly.

I'm pretty confident that "most people do not" = "most people have no clue whatsoever to the fact it's even there"

hm... tivo would think i'm some 70 year old war vet with a teenager living in the house... my viewing habits rotate between war specials on discovery and the history channel ad sophomoric shows like the man show and south park. i wonder what that would inspire marketers to send me...

sounds like an extrapolation of the nielson data-gathering technique to me...

What if everyone changed the channel whenever Regis' face showed on the TV? Would he then get stoned to death by the industry?

My cable TV provider in NJ is Cablevison and they can monitor use for customers who have their IO digital cable service. I know because my neighbor was having problems and called service one night. The technician asked her to do some things (box off, unplug box, box on, go to a specific channel , etc) and he knew when she performed the task he asked.

It creeps me out to know they have the power to do that. In the back of my head I have always suspected it, I'm just glad I don't own my digital cable box anymore and my computer records my tv shows instead of TiVo

cliv, the box is addressable, I have one as well in Long Island.. they can track some things but not to the minutiae that Nielsen does...

I was a Neilsen home at one time... 10,000 families our TV's were.... and we watched an inordinate amount of tv since we were in the business.. weren't in the business when we started, but then later we were..

anyways... the research is heavly combed over.. they had a server install wrong info last week and they had to restore from a few days before because the data is so crucial

one day... everyone will know everything about everyone else

Cyn, I was a Neilsen at one time myself. The server they put on my tv ended up being a lemon which constantly needed serviced - they'd throw me $25 every time they came over. I miss that... although since I never watch TV I never had my TV on so the machine couldn't get the ratings info - I "accidentally" left it off for a month before they finally stopped over my house one day and took it away. They still gave me $25 for taking it away, go figure...

pardon my ignorance but i thought this had been going on for years? you know, like leave a station on and that station gets a viewers' vote or some such?

Only if you are one of those neilson box people. Your regular tv does not do it. I wouldn't be suprised if digital cable could do it. For those concernced just get satelite and unplug the phone line. There is no phsyical way to get any info from you that way. I am less worried about privacy (I barely turn the tv on anymore as it is) so much as the lack of creativity. Media used to be an art form. Now with neilson boxes,tivo spying on you,viewer polls,focus groups and joint jack off sections tv has become about as creative as toilet paper.

WhoaitsZ- I thought the same thing.

We leave the tv on a lot for background noise. Like right now, I'm on the computer but the tv is on also. Alpha phi sleeps better with a little bit of tv racket. The device would not accurately report what we watch. We only actually watch a few shows all the way through. We might watch other shows half way through and decide it's not worth watching.

I don't watch TV but once or twice a week so I have no need to fuel the fire.

Ha ha to you tiVo users. GO THROW BALL WITH YOUR KIDS! :-)

I meant that in a nice way ;-)

Ruprex, what the hell is up with your avatar?

Now, with all this info tivo is trying to obtain, will they be marketing commercials specifically for each and every viewer that owns a tivo? That wouldnt be such a bad thing. Imagine watching a lot of shows like the man show and football and getting commercials with scantily clad women and other cool shit that applies to, well, people like me.

Beware of cycon publishings software. I dont have hard proof yet, but extremely stong intuitive speculation.

cool. all t hese fucking years i've left my satelite on for bill maher or someone worth supporting when nobody knew anyway.

That's actually very creepy that TV producers will know the exact moment something turns their viewers off. What happens when they eliminate any disruptions in viewing, perfect TV or terribly predictable shows? :/

The Darker Fire Within.

I have a way of dealing with privacy violation. I built a device that I have attached to my outdoor cable line. This deals with the issue of addressable boxes and privacy violation.

It consists of a box with cable connectors on each end, and a Zener diode soldered inside so that current can flow through the wire toward my house, but not back out to the pole.

i think maybe i should buy some of those tin hat thingies that people use to keep telepaths, aliens, governmant, and the elves from bothering me.... for my tv.

yeah.

while i don't want to discount the issue of the increasing power of targeted advertising... in regards to the issue of RATINGS...
i say it's fine... as long as people have the individual right to "opt out"...

it would end an era of bullshit tilted Neilson ratings... and perhaps give a more clear view of what viewers... most viewers... really ARE watching and want to see on television.

as far as the other aspect of this whole thing... targeted advertising, the power of the media and the like... that's a entirely different story. i am strongly against the influence that the mass media has on our society as it is today... but that's a topic i am opting not to discuss right now...
not a good day for me and don't want to go off on a rant and piss everyone off... *sheepish smile*

i have a TV on at the house more often than not while I'm surfing... here at the office. i forget to turn it on... in fact.. lemme do that now...

I have had a TiVo for about 3 years. If they can get anything about my viewing habits off of it, good luck.

First of all, the TiVO is always on, as is the satellite receiver that it's hooked to. So they can track away all those hours that I am not watching.

Second, if they are tracking what I am recording, have fun. There are only 3 shows that I record and they are all "season passes". So goody, goody, they know the three shows that I always watch. Since they are all on minor networks/cable channels, maybe that will help keep them on the air.

Third, if they are looking at when I skip commercials, they can forget it. I'm way too lazy to do that. Usually, I just dump the entire recording to a video tape.

Will this make me stop using TiVO? No way. I love mine even though I don't use it as many of the features as people might expect.

Hmmm.... seems like I might be the only person who feels this COULD be a good thing. For instance, most Tivo users are a little tech-headed... therefore... most watch more Sci-fi, and the really good shows that seem to get cancelled after less than a season. Perhaps this could benifit shows like that by showing that people actually DO watch them, rather than all the reality TV crap.

Just a thought. Still wishful that some of the better shows from the past season could have been saved. Damn neilson. :)