TiVo Inc. began offering advertisers and broadcasters second-by-second information on the commercials and shows its users are watching --- or skipping.

Digital video recorders let TV viewers record programming onto a hard drive, pause live television and quickly skip commercials. The machines also can study their users' recording habits in order to detect preferences and suggest similar programs the viewers might like.

Because the devices periodically connect to TiVo's computer servers to gather programming information, the San Jose-based company can collect detailed viewing data on its 700,000 subscribers.

Source: Yahoo News.