TiVo, Nielsen to Track Videorecorders

TiVo Inc. and Nielsen Media Research announced a joint effort to give the television industry its best look to date at the effect of personal videorecorders on TV viewing.

Nielsen plans to assemble a panel of thousands of volunteers who own TiVo recorders, which enable viewers to pause and replay live broadcasts, skip commercials and store dozens of programs for later viewing. The company will collect extensive data on what the panel members watch, what they record and how they manipulate the programming, then combine those results with demographic information about the panelists.

The effort will be separate from the panels that Nielsen uses to rate the popularity of shows. Financial terms of the deal between Nielsen and San Jose-based TiVo, which was announced after the markets closed, were not disclosed.

TiVo shares fell 9 cents to $10.98 on Nasdaq but rose as high as $11.50 in after-hours trading.

-- Jon Healey