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 —<br />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.<br />TVision — which has worked with the Weather Channel, NBC and the Disney ABC Television Group — is one of several companies<br />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.<br />124 in Household 6 was paying attention this second and not paying attention the next to a certain program or advertisement.”<br />Symphony Advanced Media has built a panel of 17,500 people in the United States<br />who have installed its Media Insiders mobile app, mostly on Android phones.<br />“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<br />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.<br />“The marketing company said, ‘We’re going to ask you to put this device in your home, connect it to your TV<br />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.<br />“The big thing for TV advertisers and the networks is: Are you actually looking at the screen<br />or not?” said Dan Schiffman, the chief revenue officer of TVision (pronounced Tee-Vision).<br />Another ratings company, RealityMine, has assembled a panel of 5,000 people in the United States whom it said it<br />paid less than $90 a year, who either have its app, a “home meter” plugged into their internet networks or both.
