• by Wayne Friedman , June 23, 2009

TiVo, the digital video equipment maker/media researcher and Quantcast, the Internet media research firm, are partnering in a large cross-platform measuring service for TV and the Internet.

A sample size of 35,000 households total, using TiVo's Power||Watch ratings panel and Quantcast's direct measurement, will enable advertisers and the media to analyze media-buying effectiveness for both TV and the Internet --- something that isn't available today, according to the companies.

In a statement, Todd Juenger, vice president and general manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement, says: "There [has been] no scalable tool to directly link the two [TV and the Internet]. "Most brands invest in both Internet and television advertising, and often the campaigns are designed to reinforce each other from a creative standpoint," adds Juenger, "but the audiences of these advertising impressions have been measured separately and independently."

For advertisers, TiVo/Quantcast says the effort will focus on "overlap analysis" -- the combined versus independent reach/ frequency of television and Internet advertising. It will be able to answer the question: Were people who viewed my TV ad more likely to visit my Web site?

For the media, the single-source service can look at consumption of video content -- TV-only versus Web-only versus combined. It will be able to answer the question: How does television viewing influence/ predict Internet video viewing behavior and vice versa?

The companies say the single-source cross-platform media analysis solution is expected to launch this summer.

TiVo's Power||Watch ratings service delivers -- second-by-second program and commercial ratings data against specific demographics. Quantcast has been one of the first research companies to deliver demographics for more than 10 million destinations.