Alviso, Calif. - TiVo (NASD: TIVO) announced on Wednesday that it has signed an audience research agreement with Carat, one of the largest media buying firms in the world. Under the deal, Carat will have access to TiVo's StopWatch ratings service and PowerWatch Consumer Panel, which will provide demographic and viewing behavior data for 20,000 TiVo households. Separately, TiVo announced a partnership with Nero, to integrate the company's DVR features on Nero's PC-based TV recording software.

New York - Ratings provider The Nielsen Company on Monday launched a new service that will let its clients know whether their commercials ran the previous day, rather than waiting weeks for a report on commercial ratings. The Web-based KeepingTrac service will verify spot airings on national cable and broadcast networks, and on local broadcast stations in all 210 U.S. markets. Nielsen said ad giant Carat is the first customer for the new offering.

Los Angeles - More than 70% of Americans ages 15-34 are actively using online social networks, spending on average more than seven hours per week on such websites and driving the growth of overall time spent online, according to a report commissioned by MySpace, Isobar and Carat USA and conducted by market research firms TRU, TNS and Marketing Evolution.

Los Angeles - One national and three local advertisers will share data on the effectiveness of their interactive TV ad campaigns on cable TV provider Charter's system in Los Angeles with the advertising industry, TVWeek.com reported.