Comments on: Yes Virginia, VCR Recording is Tracked By Nielsen

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:31:35 +0000

TiVo has announced a number of clients that have subscribed to their minute by minute viewing data “TiVo Stopwatch”. If I was a network or an advertising agency making big money decisions I’d want all the data I could get.

Do they care about the TiVo numbers? Perhaps they’ve learned some things of a tactical nature like how to structure commercial pods, etc, but do they care from a big money perspective the way they do about Nielsen ratings numbers, not a chance.

My guess is that TiVo owners likely timeshift more than the typical DVR ownwers, they made early adopter decisions to go out and buy the hardware, most DVR owners got it later from their cableco or satco. But we have little data to go on.

We had an item in February about TiVo timeshifting behavior and the Super Bowl that gave a single datapoint showing that TiVo users time-shifted the Super Bowl about 50% more than other DVR owners.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:31:35 +0000

TiVo has announced a number of clients that have subscribed to their minute by minute viewing data "TiVo Stopwatch". If I was a network or an advertising agency making big money decisions I'd want all the data I could get.

Do they care about the TiVo numbers? Perhaps they've learned some things of a tactical nature like how to structure commercial pods, etc, but do they care from a big money perspective the way they do about Nielsen ratings numbers, not a chance.

My guess is that TiVo owners likely timeshift more than the typical DVR ownwers, they made early adopter decisions to go out and buy the hardware, most DVR owners got it later from their cableco or satco. But we have little data to go on.

We had an item in February about TiVo timeshifting behavior and the Super Bowl that gave a single datapoint showing that TiVo users time-shifted the Super Bowl about 50% more than other DVR owners.

By: Polly

Polly — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:29:13 +0000

Robert & Bill – thanks for the info. It’s not surprising that we aren’t able to compare the two. That would be too easy!

By: Polly

Polly — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:29:13 +0000

Robert & Bill – thanks for the info. It's not surprising that we aren't able to compare the two. That would be too easy!

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:25:35 +0000

Polly, in the publicly reported TiVo data, it’s just a ranking of the shows with the highest number of people using the season pass feature.

Nielsen tracks actual viewing. We’re sure TiVo does too, but we don’t get access to ANY of that data.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:25:35 +0000

Polly, in the publicly reported TiVo data, it's just a ranking of the shows with the highest number of people using the season pass feature.

Nielsen tracks actual viewing. We're sure TiVo does too, but we don't get access to ANY of that data.

By: Polly

Polly — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:22:47 +0000

Bill – Do you know if the networks/advertisers look at or care about the TiVo numbers?

For all the Nielsen naysayers out there I think it would be interesting to know if the Nielsen DVR reporting is a close match with TiVo. Or are there too many disparities?

By: Polly

Polly — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:22:47 +0000

Bill – Do you know if the networks/advertisers look at or care about the TiVo numbers?

For all the Nielsen naysayers out there I think it would be interesting to know if the Nielsen DVR reporting is a close match with TiVo. Or are there too many disparities?

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:13:52 +0000

Polly – TiVo sells their data to customers (primarily advertisers and networks) independently.

All our current data about DVR viewing (and as it turns out VCR recording) comes from Nielsen and is collected just from Nielsen families, although in the past we used to republish the “Top TiVo Recorded” list that TiVo publishes each week.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:13:52 +0000

Polly – TiVo sells their data to customers (primarily advertisers and networks) independently.

By: Polly

Polly — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:09:56 +0000

Robert – I’m assuming that VCR recording info would only be able to be tracked from Nielsen families. However, I assumed that DVR viewing was tracked through TiVo and other outlets as well. Or are the DVR numbers just from Nielsen families? Forgive my ignorance. Also, why would Nielsen even bother with VCR recordings anymore? That’s like asking who still records music using a cassette tape.

By: Polly

Polly — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:09:56 +0000

Robert – I'm assuming that VCR recording info would only be able to be tracked from Nielsen families. However, I assumed that DVR viewing was tracked through TiVo and other outlets as well. Or are the DVR numbers just from Nielsen families? Forgive my ignorance. Also, why would Nielsen even bother with VCR recordings anymore? That's like asking who still records music using a cassette tape.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:13:54 +0000

indeed. I corrected it. At least I spelled judgment properly

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:13:54 +0000

indeed. I corrected it. At least I spelled judgment properly

By: Andrea

Andrea — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:11:23 +0000

“the DVR viewership looks to be TINY compared to DVR viewership.”

I think you mean VCR in the first instance.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:11:23 +0000

“the DVR viewership looks to be TINY compared to DVR viewership.”

I think you mean VCR in the first instance.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:32:15 +0000

If I had any hostages, I’d demand all shows recorded via DVR but not watched be counted too!! in the name of fairness and all.

That said, using the numbers above as an example, the VCR viewership looks to be TINY compared to DVR viewership.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:32:15 +0000

If I had any hostages, I'd demand all shows recorded via DVR but not watched be counted too!! in the name of fairness and all.

That said, using the numbers above as an example, the VCR viewership looks to be TINY compared to DVR viewership.