Google, TiVo Partner For TV Data

TiVo on Tuesday said that it had entered into an agreement with Google to provide the search company with anonymized TiVo viewing data for use with the Google TV Ads platform.

The deal will help Google's television advertisers measure how ads placed using the Google TV Ads platform perform.

Google TV Ads is a self-service system for placing television ads that Google launched last year.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

TiVo's data includes viewing statistics for its live and time-shifted content, which is provided by cable, satellite, telecom companies, and over-the-air broadcasting.

Todd Juenger, VP and general manager of audience research and measurement at TiVo, said that the granularity of TiVo's data will allow Google TV Ads to "provide an order of magnitude of improved accountability for advertisers."

Google's director of emerging platforms, Mike Steib, describes the deal as a way to measure television more effectively.

Google TV Ads reach roughly 96 million viewers but only a fraction of those have advanced set-top boxes that report viewing data. In conjunction with data from the Dish Network, which began working with Google in 2007, Google TV Ads will be able to draw upon data from close to 20 million viewers.

Gartner Research VP Andrew Frank says the partnership offers a reminder that Google has a lot of ways to grow beside the Internet.

"Google TV has been quietly chugging along," he said, "and with TiVo's data, advertisers will look again at what Google can do."

While Frank doesn't expect Google to displace Nielsen as the major source of TV advertising data -- Google uses Nielsen data in its Google TV Ads plaform -- he suggests that the Google's deal with TiVo will enhance competition in the market.

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