Viewers who have opted in to be tracked individually are prompted to idenfify themselves by name using their remote controls when they begin watching.

Gideon Silboa, senior product marketing manager for advertising solutions at DNS, said: “Customers can have the best of both worlds: rich set-top box data and strong individual level reporting to improve their business decisions and advertising sales”.

Customers of TNS and NDS’s joint audience measurement services include BSkyB, DirecTV, New Zealand’s Sky Television and Foxtel.