Personal Video Recorders vs Ads

Kris_J writes "Electronic Media Online have an article about PVRs and their effect on viewing habits. Specifically it says that owners watch more TV, less ads and have less of an idea what channels they're watching. I like the last line; "The [senior advertising] executive said he had never heard of PVRs, and moreover, he wasn't interested in learning more." Good." Having owned a TiVo for about six months now, I can confirm this - my TV watching has gone up, a bit, I watch barely any ads - but I usually have a good idea which channel I'm on. CartoonNetwork has some great network promoting ads.

Comments

Ads do work and people watch them

[JoeShmoe]

If there is any doubt, look at the popularity of sites like AdCritic.Com and the ratins for shows like "The Best Commercials You've Never Seen".

Personally, I enjoy both although I wish adcritic.com would grow some fair use backbone and offer a greater selection (they remove ads by request).

If an ad is done properly it can be quite enjoyable. Not just the funny ones either, there are some ones that really get a reaction.

Personally, with respect to PVRs, I believe the future of ads lies with product placement just like in the movies. Monica and Chandler drinking a Pepsi. The Simpsons ordering from Domino's. Frasier buying a new car from...whatever online car site hasn't gone out of business.

People I think have grown accustomed to the subtle influences that advertising has on their life. But any time you force someone to watch a commercial they are not interested in, you are asking for backlash. I am boycotting a new theater in town because they show 15 minutes of paid commecials (just like TV) interspersed within the trailers (which I sometimes do want to watch). I refuse to pay $8 to fill a seat, $8 for a light snack, and then still provide the theater with another income stream by being a captive eyeball.

- JoeShmoe

Nothing like a little foresight

[jayhawk88]

The executive said he had never heard of PVRs, and moreover, he wasn't interested in learning more.

Radio Executive circa 1950: "I don't know anything about this 'television', and quite frankly, I'm not really interested in learning more."

Newspaper Executive circa 1920: "I don't know anything about this 'radio', and quite frankly, I'm not really interested in learning more."

Telegraph Executive circa 1870: "I don't know anything about this 'telephone', and quite frankly I'm not really interested in learning more."

Town Crier Executive circa 1450: "I don't know anything about this 'printing press', and quite frankly I'm not really interested in learning more."

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Diversity is good, dumbass

[Junior J. Junior III]

Maybe we're now moving to a time when all the companies will merge together and begin concentrating on actually providing quality television, rather than scrambling for ratings.

Right. The reason they haven't been interested in "quality" thus far is that they're too busy getting the audience's attention. It has nothing at all to do with the fact that they define "quality" in a different way than a literary critic or academian might. Why would they have any incentive to start putting on programming of "real" quality once they control all the channels out there? All that would do is detract from their bottom line, which would piss off short-sighted shareholders who can't see that enriched culture benefits everyone. (And all shareholders are shortsighted.)

Why are marketeers so miffed about PVRs?

[Arethan]

> I watch barely any ads - but I usually have a good idea which channel I'm on. CartoonNetwork has some great network promoting ads.

THAT is why. Notice how Hemos still watches the ads on Cartoon network. Did you stop to wonder why he'll watch those ads, but not others? I've seen them before, and I'd gladly watch them again. All because they are actually entertaining. You forget that it's a commercial when you watch those ads, and that makes them much more effective.

The usual product pushing ads are boring. No one wants to waste their time watching 30 second informercials. "Jet dry will keep your dishwasher dishes clean and walk your dog too!" Bah! It's boring and has no entertaining value. I wouldn't voluntarily watch it either.

People with PVRs skip commercials for the same reason that most people don't watch Saturday afternoon infomercials. Because they are boring!

PVRs aren't going to go away anytime soon. Marketing drones are going to have to learn that the hard way. If they want our attention for 30 seconds at a time again, they're going to have to work for it by making commercials entertaining!

So?

[Wind_Walker]

What's wrong with not knowing what channel you're watching? Does it really matter that it's on NBC, or CBS, or BBC? If it's a good television show, they're going to watch it.

Maybe we're now moving to a time when all the companies will merge together and begin concentrating on actually providing quality television, rather than scrambling for ratings.

I hope that, in the future, there is only one or two channels that show us quality television all the time. Especially the news. The fewer people that are reporting the same stories, the better quality those stories will be.

Think about it; how many channels have a dozen people reporting the news? Tons. And if you could concentrate all those people into one large group and send them out on non-overlapping missions, that would be great! With only one agency reporting the news, it would be more concise, clear, and best of all, not biased at the least in order to get ratings.

I look forward to this Brave New World.

------
That's just the way it is

FreePVR is a must

[bfree]

It is no surprise to hear that people are watching less ads when they have a PVR, but we must ensure that we can continue to provide a Free way to create a PVR from commodity traffic. The question is why is their not yet a tivo type service for every tv station on the planet (like Ireland please, I could grey import a tivo now but what would be the point?). We need to release a Free package that can control a video capture device by using a db of your interests/program choices and an online db of all the tv stations available to you. I started to gather the resources to do Irish TV, can anyone point me to any projects that might like my help?

Re:Second Hand Knowledge?

[milo_Gwalthny]

Well, it *is* second-hand knowledge: I got it from the SEC, in the companies' IPO filings. This is all publicly available info (it's amazing the amount of info that needs to be filed with the SEC, and how little scrutinized it is.) These are the major corporate investors or, in the case of controlled corporate venture funds (ie. Disney's investments were through its VC subsidiary Catalyst), their parent. It's something of a who's who of media companies. The point here is that unless an open-source box is developed, your TV is still controlled by the same old corporations.

Corporate investors in TiVo:

DIRECTV, Inc
NBC Multimedia, Inc.
Philips Corporate External Ventures
Advance/Newhouse Programming Partnership
CBS Corporation
The Walt Disney Company
Comcast Interactive Investments
Cox Communications Holdings
Discovery Communications, Inc
TV Guide Interactive, Inc.
Showtime Networks

Corporate investors in ReplayTV:

News America Incorporated
Adelphia Communications Corporation
Comcast Interactive Capital
Motorola, Inc
Sega of America Dreamcast
The Walt Disney Company
The Endeavor Agency
Liberty Media Corporation
Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics
William Morris Agency
Murdock Venture Partners
NBC Multimedia, Inc
Showtime Networks, Inc
Time Warner Inc
Tribune Company
Shaw Communications Inc
At Home Corporation
Omnicom Group Inc
Echostar
Grey
The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc
Rogers Communications
Scientific-Atlanta, Inc
Sharp Electronics Corporation
Universal Music Group, Inc

Enjoy!

Here's how to answer surveys like this...

[fmaxwell]

This will confirm the biggest fears that the networks and advertisers have about PVRs. In the future, there will be contracts with DirecTV, Dish Network, and PVR manufacturers to assure that you cannot fast-forward over ads (no, I don't care what you can do with you linux-geek-boy-PC-PVR application). Trust me: DirecTV can afford the bandwidth to digitally mark a section of time as "no fast forward." Defeat it, and they will have you prosecuted under the DMCA.

The correct explanation of why you got a PVR (when talking to someone doing a survey for television advertisers) is: "I sometimes miss the toll-free phone numbers on ads and wanted to be able to pause them. I also like to watch really good ads over and over. Don't you just love the Budweiser ads with the frogs and lizards? Advertising has gotten so clever..."

Remember, the television networks took DirecTV to court to prevent DirecTV from giving subscribers network signals from stations outside of their local area. The networks are violently protective of local and national advertising revenue. Telling them that you just found a way to skip all of the ads is as clever as telling a store owner that you found a neat way to shoplift from his store (although the former is not illegal -- yet).