TiVo Introduces C3 Ratings For Local Markets

guy watching tvAs local buyers clamor for the same commercial ratings used in the national marketplace, TiVo says it will begin offering such figures this summer. The data can yield the C3 ratings for local markets that Nielsen does not currently provide. (C3 ratings form the basis for most currency in the national marketplace.)

Through a StopWatch Local Markets service, TiVo says it can provide data for both live and time-shifted commercial viewing for all 210 local markets, if clients request it.

However, it expects to debut with data from between five and 10 markets. No networks or agencies have signed up to buy the data yet, but Todd Juenger, vice president and general manager of TiVo's audience research and measurement business, said conversations have been "overwhelmingly positive."

The ratings would be culled from TiVo subscribers in individual markets. Ratings would come from a sample size of 25,000 for the top 20 DMAs.

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Smaller markets would have lower sample levels, but no fewer than 5,000. In order to track the exact time that specific commercials run, TiVo is considering using a database from either TNS or Nielsen.

No decisions have been made, Juenger said, on which markets to begin the measurement service. That determination will be based on client requests. A network's owned-and-operated station group would likely be interested in several large markets, while Hearst-Argyle may want to run a test in, say, Honolulu.

Nielsen does not provide any commercial ratings for local markets, in part because local ratings are based on "average quarter hour" viewing. The national ratings that yield C3 come from "average minute" data. A switch to that stream would have to be made -- along with some other enhancements -- to bring commercial ratings to individual DMAs.

One potential hitch in the TiVo data is that its ratings would come from only the household level; they would not be broken down by demos. The national C3 data from Nielsen has breakdowns by 18- to-49-year-old viewers and other segments.

Nielsen does offer demo-level insight into DVR viewing in local markets, including an "L3" stream, or what happens over the three days after a live broadcast. But that data is only for program ratings. (There is the potential to use the household-level TiVo data and overlay it with Nielsen figures to calculate commercial ratings by demos in specific markets.)

Skeptics might argue that the TiVo data is limited, since it is only compiled from homes that have TiVo boxes -- a subset that usually has higher household incomes and is better-educated, compared to the general population, a factor TiVo concedes.

Still, while it may not mirror the population at large, its user base is similar to digital cable subscribers -- and "those are households that advertisers care about most," Juenger says. TiVo adds that its sample sizes of up to 25,000 homes in local markets dwarfs the Nielsen panels in those DMAs. In smaller markets, the TiVo data would be derived from set-top boxes, where the viewing data is arguably firmer than the oft-criticized diaries. (The TiVo data is collected anonymously.)

Lacking commercial ratings, buyers and sellers have been locking horns over what ratings to use as currency in local markets. Led by the trade group Television Bureau of Advertising, stations are eager to use the L3 data -- which would include DVR viewing and give them more GRPs to sell. Buyers have resisted, arguing that with no commercial ratings, there is no way to gauge how many ads are being skipped.

Since buyers and sellers have agreed to use C3 nationally, it's likely that if data were available in Philadelphia, Des Moines or the other 208 markets, an agreement could be swiftly reached to use it in spot buying.

TiVo's Juenger said the buyer-seller stand-off -- and Nielsen's inability to help solve it -- was a driving force behind TiVo developing its local-market offering. "There's something out there that people want that they can't get from the existing provider. We can do it," he said.

TiVo, which is best-known for marketing DVRs, has been looking to use the viewing data it obtains from its more than 3 million boxes to sell to networks and advertisers as an alternate revenue stream.

TiVo has previously said that Starcom, Crispin Porter + Bogusky and CBS purchased its data. CBS has a large group of owned-and-operated stations that may have an interest in the new local data.

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