Grabbing eyeballs

[Towse]

I *know* what "eyeballs" are due to my misspent time.

Headline in Times of India is "War on TV grabs eyeballs and
revenues"
<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=42903047>

Anyone have an idea when "grabbing eyeballs" came into use as a
synonym for attracting viewers (in a TV sense) or users (in a Web
sense). I've heard it often since the hot-hot dot-com days from
marketing folks who'd talk about needing to grab eyeballs.

Sal
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