Charter to sell L.A. TV viewing data

CHARTER TO SELL LA TV VIEWING DATA
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Meg James]
Charter Communications said Wednesday that it would sell information it collects about the viewing preferences of 330,000 of its cable TV customers in the Los Angeles area. Charter has agreed to provide Nielsen Co. with data from those subscribers' digital set-top boxes in an effort to give advertisers and TV programmers a clearer picture of the channels and commercials people are watching. To protect the privacy of its customers, no identifying information will be included in the data, said Jim Heneghan, senior vice president for ad sales for Charter, which is based in St. Louis. The information would be turned over to Nielsen in enormous data files and categorized by five-digit ZIP Codes. The information will show when a digital set-top box is turned on, the specific channel the box is tuned to and whether a show is being recorded. It will reveal when channels are switched and when the television is turned off. Nielsen, however, has no way to tell how many people were watching TV or whether anyone was in the room. It also won't distinguish between a TV being turned on and a digital video recorder switching on automatically to record a show when no one is home.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-nielsen13mar13,1,7534643.story
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