Press release

Second-by-Second Data Reveals Top Live and Timeshifted Commercials and Least Fast-Forwarded Campaigns 

ALVISO, Calif. — July 16, 2007 — A whole new ratings race is on.  It is not the start of a new TV season yet, but it is the start of a whole new ratings competition.  TiVo’s “Top Commercial Rankings.” So TiVo says let the competition begin for the most watched, most time-shifted and least fast-forward television advertising campaigns in the market today.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), unveiled for the first time today the industry’s first Top Commercial Rankings reports. Using TiVo’s Stop||Watch service’s unique ability to track consumer viewing behavior on a second-by-second basis, in both Live and Timeshifted viewing context, TiVo will release these reports monthly.

“For many years, various sources have provided rankings of top programs. But nobody has ever provided the same type of information for commercials. And this is what marketers really care about – especially with the proliferation of DVRs,” said Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement.  “We believe these monthly reports will be both fun and informative, and provide just a small taste of the type of insight into DVR viewing behavior, timeshifting, and specific commercial ratings available to subscribers of TiVo’s Stop||Watch service.”

Categories tracked in these reports on a monthly basis include Top Total Viewing Commercials compared with Total Viewing of Top Programs; Timeshifted Commercials compared with Timeshifted Programs; and, Least Fast-forwarded Brand Campaigns. TiVo will also track other categories of interest including performance advertising on DVRs in key advertising categories and other customizable information.

Two months of data from April and May are shown below for a basis of comparison.

April -- Top Commercials v. Top Programs (Total Viewing)

• In the past, people would generally believe they could look to the most popular programs to find commercials with the most viewership. However, the TiVo Stop||Watch ratings service found the highest rated commercial among TiVo viewers for April appeared in the eighth highest rated program. Conversely, the highest rated program placed only one spot among the top ten commercials.
• Four of the five highest rated commercials ran in programs not included in top ten program viewership.
• There is no concentration of top commercials within a particular program episode. The top ten commercials appeared in eight different program episodes. Only two program episodes had more than one commercial spot make the top ten list.
• The highest commercial rating (21.1) is 86% of the highest program rating (24.5).

May Top Commercials v. Top Programs (Total Viewing)

• Unlike April, there was some concentration of top commercials in one particular episode – the May 23^rd airing of American Idol placed six of the top ten commercials.
• Unlike April, the highest commercial rating (27.9) was actually higher than the highest program rating (25.6).
• While the top programs were largely consistent for both months (dominated by Grey’s Anatomy and American Idol), Ford and Apple were the only two companies to place a commercial spot in the top ten for both months.

April -- Top Commercials v. Top Programs (Timeshifted Viewing)

• When looking at timeshifted-only, which means every viewer has the opportunity to fast-forward through the commercial, the top five highest rated commercials are largely the same as Total Viewing. In fact, four out of five are the same.
• However, the next five are mostly different. Five of the top ten highest rated commercials in timeshifted-only were not among the top ten in Total Viewing.
• Being one of the top timeshifted programs does not mean the program also delivered high levels of timeshifted commercial viewership.  In fact, eight of the top ten commercials in timeshifted viewership ran in programs that were not in top ten (including five in CSI; three in House).
• Lost has four episodes on the highest timeshifted viewing list, but no episodes on the highest total viewing list.

May -- Top Commercials v. Top Programs (Timeshifted Viewing)

• Similar to April, three of the top five commercials in timeshifted viewing are the same as total viewing.
• Similar to April, the top ten timeshifted programs had only two of the top ten timeshifted commercials.
• Sony and Universal movie studios were the only advertisers to place spots in top timeshifted commercials for both months.
• Similar to April, CSI continues to deliver many of the top timeshifted commercial spots, even though CSI itself does not make the top ten timeshifted programs.
  

April – Least Fast-Forwarded Brand Campaigns

• Most people believe commercials must be entertaining, have big budgets and include celebrities to stop viewers from fast forwarding through them.  Not necessarily true.  Among all measured networks, the least fast-forwarded campaigns were dominated by Direct Response ads.
• Virtually all of these campaigns ran during daytime.
• When limited to broadcast networks in primetime, more “expected” brands/campaigns show up.
• Three of the least fast-forwarded campaigns in primetime on broadcast also placed an ad in the top ten most viewed ads.

May -- Least Fast-Forwarded Brand Campaigns