The 2002/2003 broadcast season was pivotal for my interactive television evolution. TiVo, having sworn off advertising applications excluding Showcases the prior fall, allowed me to expand its "Gold Star" application to include movie trailers with the showcasing of Adam Sandler's "Mr. Deeds Goes To Washington"; and digital video recording rival RePlayTV, reflecting upon an analysis I prepared of revenue generating advertising opportunities, or lack thereof, in the early 21st century within the time shifted realm, relinquished delusions of marketers as their cash cows and real time shifted its focus to licensing deals.

Tom Xenos is the Director of Research for MediaVest on the P&G account. His wide range of experience, from broadcast television, to radio, syndication, internet and agency research, gives him a unique perspective on viewer and consumer behavior. In this interview, he discusses trends in the industry, the issue of quality research, what agencies look for in a research sales presentation, set top box data applications and behavioral segmentation.

On Dec. 2nd in New York City at The Helen Mills Theater, MPG, MediaContacts and Havas siblings, will stage its quarterly forum, The Collaborative Alliance, where content creators, technologists, distributors and researchers meet to vet their interactive televisual propositions (television, broadband, wireless and out of home).

Between the stress on the broadcast affiliate model and the need for standardized measurement across all platforms -- television, Internet and mobile -- there has never been a greater time of change in the marketing and media research field. Alan Wurtzel, president of NBCU research and media development, is on the forefront of these changes and is charged with the task of finding revenue-oriented solutions to these new, evolving challenges.

In the mid seventies, while watching a pony-tailed Sean Connery (Zed) be transported by an enormous flying open-mouthed, head-shaped spaceship in John Boorman's Zardoz - a film about a 23rd century society that is split into two castes (the overly civilized Eternals and the barely civilized Brutals) and Zed's quest to question the authenticity of the god Zardoz (a stoned edifice), it occurred to me that "nowhere" is now here.

Data and consumer segmentation has become pivotal in the current media landscape and there are several companies who are well positioned to offer insightful information on viewer behavior. Rentrak, with its deep database of VOD, movie and set top box activity is one of these companies. Charlene Weisler interviews Bill Livek, CEO of Rentrak. Livek discusses his background, Rentrak's business model, segmentation, changes in the industry and some predictions for the next five years.

The set top box realm is clicking. I don't mean the zillions of streams daily. Rather every couple of weeks for the last few months another company - whether researcher, dataminer, technologist, manufacturer, and/or vested third party such as advertisers, advertising agencies and content providers - is jumping into the fray, or what one might have perceived months ago, frolicking with consensual strange bedfellows. Some recent examples...

How does a youth-oriented network like Current TV create a sales position when it's not currently measured by Nielsen? For an answer to that question -- and others -- Charlene Weisler interviewed Theresa Pepe, the company's vice president of research.

Following is an excerpt from my interview with Daniel Fischer, president of the Solve It Group. Fischer is currently working on approaches to increase commercial and program ratings through applied cognitive neuroscience. He is also the research consultant for kids programmer, qubo Ventures.

Sept. 15 newsflash: The day after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reasserted its power to regulate fleeting nudity and said it wanted to further investigate "whether CBS' indecency violation [in the 2004 Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl "breast" reveal] was willful" the weapon of mass fascination has gone missing.