• by Joe Mandese , February 1, 2008

In a move that accelerates TNS' burgeoning census-based, digital set-top TV ratings business - and which may thwart Google's own TV Ads initiative in the process - satellite TV giant DirecTV has struck a deal with TNS to provide a national TV household panel of 100,000 DirecTV homes, creating the largest national TV audience measurement panel ever in the U.S.

The companies said they would draw the opt-in panel from a subset of DirecTV's more than 16.6 million subscribers, and plan to launch a commercial service, dubbed TNS DirecTVview, sometime this year. TNS said it would measure the total viewing, including the live and time-shifted (DVR) viewing of programs and commercials at a second-by-second interval, of 100,000 representative households within DIRECTV's national footprint.

The deal follows smaller, cable system deals struck by TNS, including one that's been commercialized in Los Angeles, and which Starcom MediaVest Group has been the only media buying shop to subscribe to so far. SMG also has become the first agency to sign up for the new national service.

The move also comes as Google has been struggling to convince cable and satellite TV operators to join its Google TV Ads program, which offers TV ad buys placed, served and accounted for based on digital set-top data streams from operators. To date, Google has struck agreements with DirecTV rival EchoStar, and one small cable operator. The cable industry, meanwhile, has been developing its own initiative dubbed Project Canoe, which is expected to be unveiled publicly this year.