Industry Looks for Better TV Audience Measurement

INDUSTRY LOOKS FOR BETTER TV AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Brian Steinberg]
The push to find a better yardstick for TV audiences is gaining momentum. After years spent paying TV networks for a measure of the masses watching each of their programs, Madison Avenue is drilling down and eagerly partnering with new companies that can provide a more detailed picture of the viewing habits of the average couch potato. For more than a year now, ad agencies, media buyers, TV networks and cable operators have unveiled new pacts that aim to give advertisers what they say they need: better data on how potential viewers of commercials watch TV, not just show by show, but second by second. Last week, the pattern intensified, as CBS signed on with TiVo to use the technology company's second-by-second ratings, and as TNS Media Research and DirecTV unveiled the formation of a national audience panel whose viewing patterns would also be measured on second-by-second basis.
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