FourthWall Taps Nielsen's Feininger To Crunch Set-Top Data

Interactive TV developer FourthWall Media is jumping into the media-measurement space with the hiring of Bill Feininger, previously Nielsen's vice president of technical strategy and development, who will head up the company's newly created advanced-advertising research group.
With the move, FourthWall will compete against other ad-research firms peddling set-top box analytics, including Nielsen, Rentrak, Kantar Media (formerly TNS Media), TiVo and TRA. FourthWall's software products include Ad Widgets, designed to deliver interactive overlays for linear TV commercials.
Feininger previously spent 15 years at Nielsen. As FourthWall's senior vice president of media measurement, he is responsible for all aspects of advanced and interactive advertising research including business planning, product management and strategic partnerships.
"If we could have invented someone for this job, we would have invented Bill Feininger," FourthWall CEO Tim Peters said in a statement. "Bill has proven himself as a thought leader in media measurement, and specifically in the area of set-top box audience measurement. FourthWall Media will benefit not only from his wealth of experience from his many years at Nielsen Media Research, but also his established relationships in the industry."
Prior to Nielsen, Feininger worked at companies including PictureTel, Henco Software, Data Translation Inc. and Honeywell. He has been awarded five U.S. patents covering aspects of data collection and audience-measurement techniques.
FourthWall Media, which changed its name last year from BIAP, claims its interactive TV software has been deployed in more than 24 million set-top boxes. Customers and partners include Comcast Media Center, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications, Rovi and Dish Network.