This is part of the Google TV ad program that began two years ago as a way for advertisers to bid on prices for commercial airtime. This is similar to an existing deal that Google has had with Dish Network (who ironically, has been successfully sued by TiVo).
The data that TiVo will offer Google includes second-by-second viewing information about who's fast-forwarding through commercials, who's changing the channel at specific times, and other anonymous demographic data (assuming it has been made available by the user) about who is viewing content.
Targeted-advertising is hardly a new concept, but the idea is that this sort of data could be used to connect Google TV ad clients with programs and airtimes that most correlate with interested viewers. Google can also use this information to see how many people are watching certain ads and at certain times, in order to know what to charge for a spot.
Nielsen, which is an analytics company and not an advertiser, has been partnering with TiVo for years, but this is the first time this kind of data has been offered directly to an advertiser broker.
We don't hear much about Google TV and it remains a relatively low-profile Google product but Variety did point out this interesting fact: some of the TV outlets that sell ad times through Google TV include MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, and Syfy.