What does Google know about TV? Well, that women watch more ads than men; that about 5% to 15% of TV audiences flip channels during the ads; and that virtually no one records cable-news programming on DVRs.

These are among the first insights Google is drawing after analyzing more than a year of from 13.7 million Dish Network set-top boxes.

Results of the research

The viewing data come from a subset of Dish subscribers described as "millions"; the DVR data come only from Dish Network subscribers who have DVRs.

Among Google's revelations: breaks scheduled on the hour and half-hour retain far fewer viewers than those in between; some networks retain viewers during the ads far better than others; good and bad ads follow consistent performance patterns across networks; and people consistently avoid bad ads.

The biggest audience drop-off for the ads is during live sports, when ads come during scheduled breaks, such as half-time, and during time-outs.

The data are directionally consistent with Nielsen Media Research, as well as other sources of set-top-box data such as TNS, Rentrak, TRA and the cable networks themselves. "Second-by-second data can provide important learnings into how to program pods better, how to produce better content for programs and ads, how to schedule ads to optimize commercial ratings," said Debbie Reichig, a former NBCU and Court TV research exec who is president of In-Focus Media.

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