Via the NYT: Viewers Fast-Forwarding Past Ads? Not Always
It turns out that a lot of people with digital video recorders are not fast-forwarding and time-shifting as much as advertisers feared. According to new data released yesterday by the Nielsen Company, people who own digital video recorders, or DVRs, still watch, on average, two-thirds of the ads.One big reason is that many people with DVRs still tune in to watch about half of their shows at the scheduled start time, meaning they must sit through commercials.
And even when people watch recorded shows later, many are not fast-forwarding through the ads. On average, Nielsen found, DVR owners watch 40 percent of commercials that they could skip over — perhaps because they like ads, don’t mind them or simply can’t be bothered.
“People are actually playing back more of the commercials than we thought,” said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at Magna Global Media Research, an ad-buying agency. “People are buying DVRs not because they want to time-shift all of their viewing and skip all commercials, but because they want to time-shift some of their viewing.”
I wonder what the break-down is of live events (mostly sports) versus non-live. I watch most of my sports live, especially since I have an HDTV and a non-HD TiVo. Before I had HD I didn’t mind if I started a game slightly late, as that meant I could avoid some commercials. I can’t see why one would watch, say Battlestar Galactica “live” when waiting 20ish minutes would mean the ability to skip all the commercials.
I will admit that sometimes I may allow the commercials to come up when I am watching a TiVo’d show–usually if I am watching TV and doing something else (like cleaning up the kitchen) and can’t get to the remote or if I am otherwise distracted.
Still, this is actually all good news for TiVo because it means that shows that have a high number of DVR watchers can tell advertisers that a lot of their commercials will get through, DVR ot not.
February 16th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Having had a DVR for around eighteen months, I still generally forget that I have the ability to skip the commercials. At least until my wife yells at me.
February 16th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
When I had a TiVo, I wouldn’t always skip the commercials either – I’d forget, or, like you, I’d go off to the kitchen and do something.
The nice thing is that if cleaning the kitchen up took too long, I could pause it when the show came back on, even if I wasn’t done.
Now, however, I don’t even have a TV hooked up to cable, and am much happier with that. I can waste far too much time on TV.
February 16th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I have a very simple rule. Never walk away from the remote, or take it with me if I go away from wherever I was watching.
Even watching live at the start of a program, I usually hit “pause” at the first couple of commercial breaks, wait awhile (go clean up the kitchen or something), then fast-forward. Presto, I can skip over all remaining commercial breaks!
February 16th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Well, my dorm has TiVo and no one watches the commercials anymore.
The horrible part is that without the commercials, there won’t be any shows…
I don’t know what’s going to happen to the TV industry.
February 16th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
[...] Our own Dr. Taylor, Poliblogger, asks why people watch so many commercials even when they have TiVo or some analog thereof. He then explains why he sometimes watches them. The answer isn’t all about technology, either. [...]