Ad Age: Nielsen, Tivo Sign DVR Monitoring Deal

Criticized for not determining the influence that digital video recorders (DVRs) are having on television ratings, Nielsen inked a deal with DVR maker Tivo to create a panel to explore that very issue. It appears that the deal will not take full advantage of Tivo's powers, determining viewership of individual ads, but will rather concentrate on providing a correction factor for Nielsen's ancient ratings figures.

The move happens to come at the very moment that some DVR owners are expressing their discomfort with the devices measuring their behavior. The behavior measurement capabilities became prominently known only in the last week, as Tivo received great publicity on its observations that Janet Jackson proved the most used instant replay of the Super Bowl.