TNS Media Research and DirecTV announced plans for a national panel of 100,000 DirecTV subscribers to measure live and time-shifted viewing of TV programs and commercials on a second-by-second basis. TNS DirecTView will be launched this year and data from the set-top-box system will be marketed by TNS.
“By working with TNS Media Research, our goal is to develop a panel capability that will provide important insights across our advertising platform. These insights will in turn provide our advertisers and programming partners an unparalleled level of measurement accuracy and accountability when partnering with DirecTV,” said Eric Shanks, EVP DirecTV Entertainment.
The partners also publicized a thumbs-up for the new service from a key advertising agency. "This announcement is exciting as it is further proof that the digital evolution is fueling a revolution in television audience measurement. With the TNS DirecTView service, Starcom is thrilled to be able to take another important step in understanding and using second-by-second behavioral data to acquire more knowledge and deliver greater accountability on behalf of our advertisers,” said Tracey Scheppach, Senior Vice President, Video Innovations Director, Starcom Worldwide.
RBR/TVBR observation: Not a direct challenger to Nielsen, obviously, since this is strictly gathering national data, not local. Also, while the satellite TV set-top-boxes can produce lots and lots of data, it is not a representative sample of the US viewing public – it excludes everyone who subscribes to cable and Dish Network or watches over-the-air broadcast TV via an antenna. Still, there will be considerable advertiser and agency interest in the sizeable aggregation of data on second-by-second viewer behavior.
