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Interpublic Signs on for Second-by-Second TiVo ‘Stop Watch’

TiVo offers a service called TiVo Stop Watch, which gives media companies a second-by-second picture of the ads they buy.

Interpublic has signed on for the service, which tracks how many TiVo users are watching a spot or a portion of a spot, and whether ads are skipped, writes MediaPost. The data, which could be seen as competition to Nielsen’s commercial ratings, looks to measure behavior in TiVo’s estimated 4 million-plus homes and is arguably a very accurate view of what kind of commercial viewing is taking place - at least among TiVo users.
TiVo Stop Watch’s second-by-second data may not be an accurate account of television commercial viewing among “typical” consumers, however - first, because it is culled from a much smaller sample than Nielsen’s national pool, and also because TiVo users are generally more upscale than average viewers. They are also more likely to be early adopters.

Starcom has also purchased the Stop Watch service, and CEO John Muszynski says he hopes to do at least a couple of deals during the upfront based on second-by-second guarantees.

This year’s upfront is gearing up to be an interesting one, with the question of which measurement - commercial ratings, live ratings, live-plus-same-day ratings, second-by-second ratings, minute-by-minute ratings - will be used as currency and whether (and how much) viewer engagement will be considered.