• by David Kaplan , November 8, 2004

In an unexpected development, Information Resources Inc. (IRI), a market research firm best known for its consumer product scanner panels, has licensed TiVo's audience data for a new research service it claims will reveal the true impact of DVR technology on advertising.

IRI said it will incorporate the TiVo's audience data with its BehaviorScan software to measure ad effectiveness among households using DVRs, which has become increasingly popular in the past few years and is notable for, among other things, enabling viewers to easily skip standard commercials.

The move is ironic, because TiVo has an audience data partnership with VNU's Nielsen Media Research unit, a rival of IRI, and because VNU's ACNielsen unit recently formed an agreement with Arbitron to develop a new single- source media and marketing research system utilizing Aribitron's portable people meters and ACNielsen's Homescan product scanner sample. Originally, Arbitron had been developing a PPM-based single source system in conjunction with IRI.

The IRI BehaviorScan DVR Service will allow national advertisers to quantify impact of DVRs on ad effectiveness and ultimately on brand and category sales.

In a statement, IRI noted that the service was developed in close cooperation with TiVo, is supported by a consortium of leading national advertisers in the CPG industry. Through the agreement, IRI will provide TiVo DVRs to its BehaviorScan household panelists who choose to participate in the program.

According to Forrester Research, DVR penetration is estimated to reach 41% by 2009.