TiVo Names Head of Research/Analytics Unit

TiVo has tapped Frank Foster as senior vice president and general research of its TiVo Research and Analytics subsidiary.

Foster, to be based in the company's New York offices, will head up TiVo Research's strategic development in research and analytic solutions, audience measurement, data provisioning and programmatic advertising efforts.

He most recently was president and general manager of Crossbeam Media, a unit of Comcast, that focuses on TV, online and mobile advertising platforms.  Foster also previously served as VP advanced media sales and planning at Comcast Spotlight, and was head of television advertising sales and television product development for AT&T AdWorks. Prior to AT&T, Foster was the CEO at EVAD Consulting and co-founder and president of television audience research pioneer, erinMedia.  Foster also assisted in the sale of Cheetah Technologies to Acterna, and, before that,  held sales and marketing positions at USRobotics.

"The work TiVo Research is doing to provide advanced audience research and targeted data services and solutions is of utmost importance to TiVo's future and is of increasing critical importance to the advertising industry," TiVo CEO Tom  Rogers said in a statement. "Frank brings with him tremendous experience in advanced advertising and deep insight into multi-platform entertainment that will be put to immediate use at TiVo Research. We are extremely pleased to have Frank leading this team."

"TiVo Research is in a unique position to couple the industry's largest single source, cross-platform data set with unrivaled experience in set top box data analytics,” Foster added. “When combined with TiVo's significant investment in state of the art big data technology, TiVo Research is in a unique position to shed light on how advertisers' media spend drives consumer behavior and more importantly product sales.”