Networks are watching you watching them

Jessica Toonkel reveals how TV networks in America are now measuring viewers’ biometrics and brain waves in the war to preserve their advertising market share and win viewers back from the online world.

TV NETWORKS are trying a new tactic to understand what programmes and commercials people like to watch ... reading their minds.

Comcast Corp’s NBC Universal and Viacom are each opening labs where they will study TV viewers in mock living rooms filled with infrared cameras tracking their biometrics — such things as eye movements and facial reactions made while hooked up to skin sensors and heart monitors.