TiVo Wants To Give Away Its TV Research

TiVo saw an interesting way to congratulate the merger of ComScore and Rentrak.  It announced plans to offer free its TV research data next year.  While consumers may not care so much, neither should research companies.  Whether this news affects any companies seems unlikely although the point TiVo is trying to make does resonate.  Per Fierce Cable article, Frank Foster, Senior Vice President and General Manager of TiVo Research states "The focus needs to be on how you connect advertisers with audiences they really want to reach, with data that can ensure that, and metrics that can verify it." 

As consumers get more and more annoyed with ads that interrupt our programming and ad messages that border on the inane, both how the message reaches us and how it builds a positive relationship with the consumer seem more important.  Does the Gecko or Flo really sell more insurance or do they push us away; does Jan sell more Toyotos or make us cringe.  And as we seek content off the TV set, do ratings really matter?