Just as TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO) and CBS (NYSE: CBS) announced their audience measurement deal, DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) and TNS Media Research say they are developing a national opt-in audience measurement panel comprised of their own. The new program, dubbed TNS DirecTView, will include data from the satellite service’s 100,000 subscribers. The two claim that this would be the largest U.S. national audience measurement panel. TiVo’s audience analytics program, Stop//Watch, only measures 20,000 of the DVR provider’s subs. But DirecTV’s deal with TNS represents a direct challenge to Google’s (NSDQ: GOOG) partnership with the real-time audience measurement programs offered by The Nielsen Company and DirecTV rival EchoStar (NSDQ: DISH) for Google TV Ads. Google’s platform, which has been operating since May, includes ad inventory across hundreds of channels and all dayparts, but is so far still in the trial phase and is currently experimenting with a small amount of satellite customers.

TNS DirecTView has been in the works for nearly two years. The two plan to release it sometime this year. So far, Publicis Groupe media shop Starcom, which was one of the first ad agencies to try TiVo’s Stop//Watch, is one of the first to publicly announce its participation. Release

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