TiVo Users Watch Super Bowl Half-Time Again and Again

When Justin Timberlake tore off part of Janet Jackson's leather corset during Sunday's Super Bowl half-time show, TiVo users took notice. They took notice again and again, using TiVo's digital video recorder (DVR) function to replay the event and to pause at the crucial moment in order to discern just what it was that Jackson had revealed to millions of Americans. TiVo said that particular halftime stunt was the most replayed moment not only of the Super Bowl, but of all TV moments that the young company has ever measured.

TiVo said it measured audience behavior among 20,000 users during the Super Bowl. At the time of the "wardrobe malfunction," as Timberlake coined the incident, TiVo measured a 180 percent jump in viewership. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael Powell launched an investigation into the incident.

2004 marks the third year that TiVo has released details of its second-by-second review of how Super Bowl viewers used their TiVo units. In addition to pausing and replaying the Jackson and Timberlake finale, TiVo users used the technology for commercials. The top two commercials based on user behavior, according to TiVO, are from Bud Light: a romantic sleigh ride interrupted by a flatulent horse and a sharp-toothed dog demonstrating his unusual way of scoring a cheeky beer for his master.