TiVo dropped a press release about the Power||Watch service I posted about earlier today.

Media planning and buying company Starcom USA and TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advertising solutions and television services for DVRs, today announced Starcom is the first media agency to partner with the firm on Power||Watch™ Consumer Panel — a new offering from TiVo which provides advertisers access to demographic and viewing behavior data for 20,000 households who volunteer to take part in a consumer panel.

“With 20,000 households, the Power||Watch Consumer Panel will provide a new level of detail on DVR viewing behavior among any given brand’s target segments that will significantly enhance the approach advertisers take in creating and buying advertising on television,” said Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, Audience Research & Measurement, TiVo.

There is more in the full press release.

^*With the caveat that it is only available to existing customers.

Yes, that’s right, if you have an existing TiVo user account you can purchase a new TiVo unit on the same account and get product lifetime for it for $399. These are promotional prices good through February 2, 2008.

^*Only available for existing TiVo customers added a new box to their existing account.

These are all temporary promotional prices good only through February 2, 2008, but TiVo is also making some permanent changes to the Multi-Service Discount pricing. MSD pricing is now $9.95/month or $99 pre-paid with a one year commitment - no more 2-year or 3-year plans.

The pre-paid option is nice, but it doesn’t hide that this is effectively a price increase for MSD for anyone willing to commit to three years, or who would prefer paying monthly for 2-years. (Pre-paying for 2 years does come out ahead.)

There is something I have to wonder about. Since lifetime is available to current customers, and the promos run through February 2, 2008, could someone buy a TiVo now with a standard plan, say one year for $12.95/month, then before February 2 buy a second box and, as a then ‘current customer’, buy an additional box with lifetime? (Which would make the first box eligible for MSD I’d expect.) And then when the year is up you could drop service on the first box, leaving you with a box with lifetime. Going by the wording of the information I was sent, that would seem to work. I’ve asked TiVo, we’ll see what they say.

The Wall Street Journal today has an article about TiVo’s market research business, specifically a new ‘Power Watch’ product which provides marketers with more specifics about users and their viewing habits. Viewer specific demographic data such as age, income, marital status, and ethnicity will be combined with viewing data, such as which programs are watched and which ads are watched, or skipped, to provide a more detailed picture for advertisers. Now, before you get all up in arms about your privacy, this data is drawn from a pool of 20,000 volunteer households who have agreed to have this data gathered. As an incentive the volunteers are entered into a raffle for a free TiVo unit.

TiVo’s service competes with Nielsen, which provides advertisers with similar data. However, Nielsen’s pool is only 3,000 households, and TiVo allows advertisers to survey users via an interactive poll, while Nielsen does not allow advertisers to communicate with their survey pool. (Via Gizmodo)

Video Business is reporting that, with all of the sub-$100 promos, over 90,000 HD DVD players were sold last week - mostly the Toshiba HD-A2 (which was the primary model on sale). (Via EngadgetHD)

High-Def Digest cites Sony Electronics president Stan Glasgow as sating that he expects Sony’s standalone Blu-ray players to drop 20%, or more, to around $399 for the holidays. But he says not to expect prices to drop much below that -at least not this year. (That is MSRP of course, so you’d probably see them for less from online retailers.) Glasgow also indicated that a firmware update would be made available for some existing Sony Blu-ray players to enable some Profile 1.1 (aka ‘Bonus View‘) features. I’d have to say he means the PS3, don’t know about any of the others. (Via EngadgetHD)

And finally, confirming previous reports, SlySoft’s new AnyDVD 6.1.9.6 beta is capable of copying Blu-ray titles protected with BD+, at least for now. We’ll see if the BDA responds with updates to plug the hole - that’s supposedly something BD+ is designed for. (Via - wait for it - EngadgetHD)