Nothing particularly surprising about this, but TiVo is going to start selling information about what its users are watching and (more importantly) how they’re watching to advertisers and networks:
[T]he company can monitor viewers’ second-by-second behavior. It can tell how many viewers in a certain ZIP code clicked away at what moment in a commercial, for instance, or when a particular character appeared on a show… The first report shows that TiVo viewers are much more likely to record popular dramas and sitcoms, while they prefer to watch reality shows like “American Idol” live.
They insist that the info will only be used in the aggregate, so you won’t have to worry about anyone else knowing that you’ve set your TiVo to record every episode of Extreme Makeover. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
