Ms. Milz, 48, who lives with her husband and three children in Chicago, had agreed to be a panelist for a company called TVision Insights, which monitored her viewing habits —
and whether her eyes flicked down to her phone during the commercials, whether she was smiling or frowning — through a device on top of her TV.
TVision — which has worked with the Weather Channel, NBC and the Disney ABC Television Group — is one of several companies
that have entered living rooms in recent years, emerging with new, granular ways for marketers to understand how people are watching television and, in particular, commercials.
124 in Household 6 was paying attention this second and not paying attention the next to a certain program or advertisement.”
Symphony Advanced Media has built a panel of 17,500 people in the United States
who have installed its Media Insiders mobile app, mostly on Android phones.
“We’re just trying to understand where people really are and what they’re doing, what they’re watching, how are they interacting, and ideally after that, how is
that changing their behavior or affecting their behavior,” said Jonathan Steuer, the chief research officer of Omnicom Media Group, which oversees media buying for advertisers.
“The marketing company said, ‘We’re going to ask you to put this device in your home, connect it to your TV
and they’re going to watch you for the Olympics to see how you like it, what sports, your expression, who’s around,’” she said.
“The big thing for TV advertisers and the networks is: Are you actually looking at the screen
or not?” said Dan Schiffman, the chief revenue officer of TVision (pronounced Tee-Vision).
Another ratings company, RealityMine, has assembled a panel of 5,000 people in the United States whom it said it
paid less than $90 a year, who either have its app, a “home meter” plugged into their internet networks or both.