Digital video recording company TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) has developed a system for tracking the TV viewing habits of individuals minute-by-minute. Combined with basic demographic data, the information may make the targeting of television ads more effective.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE)'s NBC seems to have bought into the new program. It will use the TiVo product to help its advertisers do a better job of reaching their audiences. "Advertisers have been asking us to help them find new ways to make TV advertising more effective," Mike Pilot, president of NBC Universal Sales and Marketing, told The Wall Street Journal.

TiVo's product does not seem to help advertisers with certain critical problems like skipping commercials on shows that were recorded by the consumer to be viewed later. It is also not clear whether individual viewing behavior is an effective way to make advertising work better. Just because a 50-year old man is watching a show about a car does not mean he is in the market for a new vehicle.

Once TiVo or another company can offer a service that allows marketers to know what the viewer is thinking, they may have a service that really works.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker made it clear at a conference yesterday that GE (NYSE: GE) had no interest in selling the media business. Referring to GE CEO Jeff Immelt, Zucker said, "He has said numerous times that NBCU is not for sale. It is not for sale after the Olympics." Some press reports have indicated that GE would take the big money from the sports event and then dump the business on some sucker.

It is odd that the head of a GE division should have to make this kind of comment at all. The head of the locomotive division probably wouldn't make comments about the future of his business. Meanwhile, NBC Universal can go on operating as usual whether Wall Street thinks it is for sale or not.

The argument for selling NBC is that the unit does not fit with the conglomerate's industrial and financial operations. That is true, but owning a network does mean tickets to the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

NBC is a $15 billion business with operating income running about $2.5 billion, making it a modest part of GE's overall earnings. Still, the business is about the size of CBS (NYSE: CBS), which has a market cap of $21 billion and debt of $7 billion.

For the $28 billion enterprise value of CBS, GE would sell NBC tomorrow.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor of 247wallst.com.