(14 February 2007 4:30 pm)

MUMBAI: US media research firm Nielsen is consolidating its initiatives involving digital television set top box data into a new service offering named Nielsen DigitalPlus.

Nielsen DigitalPlus will work with set top box (STB) data from cable system operators (MSOs) and satellite providers to create new insights and services for clients by integrating set top box data with other Nielsen information.

Nielsen DigitalPlus will draw upon the resources and information assets of numerous Nielsen businesses including: the television measurement services of Nielsen Media Research, commercial activity data from Nielsen Monitor Plus, retail and scanning information from A.C. Nielsen, as well as the modeling and forecasting capabilities of Claritas, Spectra and BASES.

Initially, Nielsen DigitalPlus will focus on several high-potential client initiatives:

- Exploring how set top box data can contribute to Nielsen's Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) goal of bringing electronic measurement to all local television markets

- Providing measurement of advanced advertising applications such as interactive, targeted advertising

- Bringing insights on advertising effectiveness through granular reporting of commercial activity

- Providing analytics to support MSO Customer Relationship Management (CRM) by combining television viewing data with other data sets to provide new insights to MSOs and satellite providers about their subscribers' activity.

Nielsen DigitalPlus senhior VP Jed Meyer says, "With our wide array of media and marketing information services, expertise in advanced technology, and experience working with large volumes of data, Nielsen is uniquely positioned to help clients unlock the potential of set top box data.

“As the industry begins to analyze and use the vast amount of information available through these devices, Nielsen will work with clients to develop comprehensive solutions to this new frontier of measurement. We are intensely focused on using all our resources to succeed at this challenge.”

Nielsen DigitalPlus will build on Nielsen's long history of set top box data projects going back to Warner Amex's QUBE system in the 1980s. More recently Nielsen has worked with Comcast to process and develop insights from their Video On Demand server data. Nielsen also worked with Tivo to establish a joint panel of TiVo subscribers whose set top box data Nielsen processed on a daily basis. Nielsen is currently working on research projects with several MSOs and satellite providers to study set top box data for potential analytical and audience measurement purposes.