Nielsen Multi-TV PVR Audience Measurement System.

Nielsen Media Research and Ucentric Systems announced an agreement to create television audience measurement software that will track usage of personal video recorders on multiple television sets.

Many digital set-top boxes will be powered by Ucentric Multi-TV PVR applications. Under the agreement, Nielsen software will be integrated into the Ucentric system. This will enable Nielsen to collect tuning, recording and playback information from every TV set in the home connected to the Ucentric system.

This audience measurement software would be used only by Nielsen Media Research to retrieve data from Nielsen sample households, and only with permission from the household, as is the case with all homes in its samples. This software is otherwise inactive in non-Nielsen homes.

Ucentric PVR and home media networking software offers consumers personal recording capabilities as well as their full programming lineup on multiple TVs throughout the home. With digital set-tops powered by Ucentric’s Multi-TV PVR solution, TV viewers will be able to conveniently choose and control individual video recordings from a single in-home recording library shared among multiple television sets.

“We are proud to have Nielsen as a distinguished partner as we expand viewer choices with the multi-tuner and multi-room dimensions of our Multi-TV PVR solution. By incorporating audience measurement capability into our software, we are working with the entire television industry to help manage the commercial systems around advertising, which is fundamentally important to our partners and the industry overall,” said Michael Collette, CEO of Ucentric.

“With Ucentric, we are creating new measurement capabilities for the new networked home,” said Scott Brown, senior vice president for strategic relationships at Nielsen Media Research. “Nielsen Media Research will be able to provide the industry with a continuous flow of data in this ever-changing environment.”

“Extracting data is an important first step,” continued Brown. “The next steps require that Nielsen Media Research develop entirely new business rules, editing and crediting criteria, new calculation and data processing software. The goal is to fully credit PVR and other “time shifting” usage by integrating the data into our syndicated reports – the currency for more than $60 billion in advertising spending in the United States.”