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How Greedy Does He Think They Are?

A start-up ratings service that plans to use audience data gathered from set-top boxes is trying hard to get cable operators onboard--even promising them a hefty piece of the action. Multichannel News reports that erinMedia, owned by real estate developer Frank Maggio, is ready to offer cable systems as much as 50 percent of the profits in exchange for data from their boxes. "It would not be a controlling interest--it would just be a profit incentive," says Maggio, who also has an antitrust lawsuit pending against dominant TV rating service Nielsen Media Research. He is, he says, trying "to subvert the dominant paradigm." The trade magazine notes, however, that his timing "is somewhat inopportune" in that Nielsen recently unveiled a comprehensive plan to offer state-of-the-art electronic TV measurement across all platforms, from iPods to cell phones, as well as traditional TV sets. And Gale Metzger--former president of Statistical Research Inc., and one-time would-be rival to Nielsen--tells Maggio "philosophically, you're a breath of fresh air," but says the kind of TV-viewing information that can by tracked via set-tops is "dirty," as the boxes are designed to carry TV signals, not measure viewing.

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