CBS, TiVo in Research Partnership

ALVISO, January 31: CBS
Corporation has signed on to TiVo’s Stop||Watch service, which provides
second-by-second measurement of program and commercial ratings for both live
and time-shifted viewing.

The partnership with TiVo
aims to aid CBS in developing and assessing new strategies to deliver results
for its advertising clients, including learning how to structure pods and
interstitials to keep the audience’s attention during commercial breaks. CBS
will also use the service to develop improved promotional strategies for
time-shifted viewers to build audiences for its programs.

TiVo Stop||Watch data are
derived from a daily, anonymous, stratified random sample of 20,000 TiVo
units—from which the second-by-second "clickstream" of behavior
and viewership is collected and assessed. Using an online suite of reports,
subscribers to the research service can see break down key data for: Total
Viewing, Live Viewing, Time-shifted Viewing (less than 1 hour, 1-6 hours, 24-28
hours, 48-72 hours, 3-7 day, and 7-14 day delay), Program Ratings, Commercial
Ratings and a Commercial Viewership Index. The service has been commercially
available, primarily on a subscription basis, since February 2007.

"We are pleased at
how quickly the television industry has embraced TiVo's state-of-the-art
research capabilities through the Stop||Watch service,” said Todd Juenger, the
VP and general manager of TiVo audience research and measurement. “There is no
more important issue to the business of television than understanding the
impact of DVRs on viewing behavior. We believe CBS is taking advantage of a
remarkable opportunity to help their clients assess and adapt their strategies
in the age of the DVR."

"As more and more
television viewers add the DVR to their home entertainment systems and make the
transition from linear to non-linear viewers, we at the networks must adapt to
serve both these newly empowered viewers and the advertisers seeking to
communicate with them," said David F. Poltrack, the chief research officer
at CBS Corporation and the president of CBS Vision. "TiVo, through its
user database and its innovative Stop||Watch research software, offers us the
opportunity to analyze television viewing behavior and develop strategies to
maximize the impact of our advertisers' messages and product placement
arrangements in this new non-linear viewing environment. We also look forward
to working with TiVo in the utilization of this research resource to enhance
our program promotion and to gathering valuable feedback concerning the
performance of these programs."

—By Ned Berke