Boston-based start-up TVision Insights monitors viewer reactions as they watch TV and provides broadcasters and programmers with in-depth viewing data.
With increasing competition from other platforms, audiences are already migrating away from traditional TV viewing. Now TVision Insights has built a device that tracks TV viewers: who is watching what and how they are reacting to it. Founded by two MIT alumni and a 2015 MassChallenge winner, the company has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices in New York City and Tokyo. In another round of funding, the start-up has raised an extra $6.8 million, bringing their total funding to $9.3 million.
TVision is the first company to measure actual ‘eyes-on-screen’ to provide advertisers, agencies and television networks with the second-by-second data required to understand the effectiveness of television advertising and programming. It uses state-of-the-art technology to collect, anonymously and passively, information on viewer behaviour, attention and emotional effects second by second and person by person from the natural viewing environment. The aim is to achieve this without compromising viewer privacy.
The company has developed a small device that sits on top of an ordinary television and can even use lasers and thermal infrared to work in low light. The technology, built on computer vision and focused on eye-tracking technology, uses sensors and algorithms capable of identifying not just who is watching in a family group, but also who is just sitting in the room rather than not watching TV, and what viewers’ reactions are to the show that is on at the time. TVision’s devices are already installed in some 7,000 homes that have opted in across the United States and Japan and currently provide three of the largest broadcasters with the data they need to inform their programming decisions.
As TVision’s website says, ‘We show you what’s happening on the other side of the screen.’
Accurate viewing data is essential if television broadcasters are going to compete. Reporting shortfalls could eventually lead to advertising declines and a severe loss of revenue. With ever more inventive models of broadcasting entertainment, such as the interactive German courtroom drama discussed in section 37, perhaps traditional broadcasters can compete with the new forms of TV viewing that are expanding exponentially in their popularity.
While this is an excellent way to gather data on viewers and their preferences and viewing experiences, and the company insists that it does not affect viewer privacy, many will see it as an invasion. As a society, we are continually giving up more and more of our personal data to companies and governments looking to gain an insight into our behaviour for a range of reasons. A challenge of introducing this model will be to disassociate from the ‘Big Brother’ parallels that some will inevitably draw.
A similar model is the Bioanalytics platform Lightwave, which enables film companies to monitor the emotions of audience members during their viewing experience. Broadcasting and film companies will have to use new and ever more innovative ways to investigate how we view entertainment and how they can adjust their approaches accordingly.
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Website: www.tvisioninsights.com
Contact: www.tvisioninsights.com/contact/
Innovation name: TVision Insights
Country: United States
Industries: Access exclusive / Entertainment & culture