DVR Viewers Push Ad Ratings Higher

An anonymous reader writes "It looks like DVRs and timeshifting has finally done what many people said it would do: increased overall viewership! USA Today reports: 'Among the things the report revealed is that many DVR viewers do not fast-forward through ads. The viewer total for broadcast network ads goes up 32% when DVR watchers within three days are included, according to Nielsen. For some prime-time shows, it means that DVR viewing, long seen as a threat to advertising, could even bring higher ad prices. NBC's The Office, for example, had a live-plus-three Nielsen commercial rating of 3.36 — higher than the 3.11 it got for the week of May 6 under the traditional Nielsen program rating system.' Makes me wonder where this will lead for my favorite genre shows which by their very nature have a higher DVR component and have seen declining viewership using the older methodology (BSG, SG-1, etc)."

Comments

perhaps they are recording the ads

[Le'BottomEh]

and skipping them when they view it at a later date. That's what my friends do with their TiVo.

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[jellomizer]

Using a Series 1 TiVo. I do that some times but not all the time. Most of the time I just let it play threw and just Use to TiVo to record the Show for me. Skipping Commericals reqires active television watching. Most of the time I am more passive TV watching while the show I playing I do something else. I normally get a Jist of what is going on and Ill stop every once in a while to see what is happening but I am not intently watching the show. Also it depends on how much free time. If I have like 20 mintues free I can watch a quick 30 minute show in that time if I skip commericals then I do so. But if I have a lot of free time and not much else to watch after that then I let it play threw. Advertisements are not Evil, but sometimes they are annoying. I use the TiVo as a tool to make my life better. Not so I can be an Anial Hyper Liberal and put work and effort to Fast Forward threw comericals just because they are there.

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[1u3hr]

Not so I can be an Anial Hyper Liberal and put work and effort to Fast Forward threw comericals just because they are there.

And people used to say TV rots the mind. Well, you showed them.

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[walt-sjc]

I normally skip ads, but occasionally I just forget, and if the ad isn't totally annoying I find myself watching it until my wife reminds me to "bloop bloop bloop" (tivo 30 sec skip hack...)

What will instantly prompt me to pick up the remote and "bloop" is obnoxious ads, such as Vonage woo hoo (fuck you too) and car dealership ads. Why is it that all car dealerships have horrible obnoxious ads? Hell, they are even worse that inane ads for "hot pockets" or tampons...

If we could thumb up or down ads as we watch, maybe we would get better quality ads.

I think most DVR users don't fast forward.

[rsvedersky]

Most of the DVR users I know seem to "forget" that they can fast forward and its not an issue. What I can't wait for is when viewership is actually tracked instead of by some representative selection of people who never seem to like the shows I like.

Re:I think most DVR users don't fast forward.

[wikdwarlock]

My experience w/ a DVR is just the opposite, and is telling of how much I, and our culture, equate the real world to TV. I've found that since getting a DVR, I am inclined to rewind to make sure I heard something correctly, to laugh at someone picking their nose in an audience, to give myself extra time to solve the final Wheel of Fortune puzzle, etc. I skip as many ads as I can when we've partially recorded a show, and get miffed when I see the dreaded "Live Tv" message on screen. Ads in fully recorded shows are almost universally skipped unless they happen to contain something interesting to catch my eye in the half second of them I see as they're skipped. Furthermore, when I now listen to the radio, I find myself wanting to rewind it to hear the part of the traffic report I missed while not paying full attention. I also want to rewind conversations I've just had with people to recall what was said. The DVR experience of being able to pause, rewind, etc, has become so integral to my TV watching that it has bled over into other parts of my life where content is perhaps not fully registered on first "viewing". In my personal experience, the DVR fundamentally changes TV into an active process and affects how I look at other things as well.

And they know this...how?

[Ngarrang]

And just how do they know that DVRs are not skipping commercials? I do not see a reference in the article to specific DVRs that would report such a thing back to Nielson.

The commercials can usually be ignored when the show is finally watched or burned to DVD, right? The DVRs I see advertised all seem to offer this feature. I am looking to buy a combo DVD/VHS/DVR this year, so this feature sounds remotely useful to save DVD space. More shows per DVD!

Ads

[Vexor]

Ads are used for a lot of stuff. They give you a chance to grab another beverage, run to the bathroom, and so on. These people are probably not viewing them (exception being a particularly funny ad). The better answer might even be they can't find the fast foward button or the pause(for when they do need to get up) on their jumbo multiuse remotes.

Personal Experience

[neersign]

I know that I personally do fast forward thru most ads when wawtching a program on my DVR, but I do often stop and rewind to watch a particular advert. Sometimes its just because something looked funny other times it is genuine interest in the subject. I'd definitely say that it does make my overall experience more pleasurable as I never have to watch one of those "make me want to slit my wrists" Head-On commercials ever again.

DVR

[LordPhantom]

Being an avid DVR-er, my habits are as follows:

1) Start of commercial - hit fast forward 2) Skip back if/when I see something I'm looking for, or a funny looking add 3) Miss the start of the show, curse comcast for not having "skip ahead 30seconds" (I miss my Dish DVR :( ) 4) rewind 5) start watching show (with 5 seconds of last add)

In many ways, DVRs are doing to TV what the internet has done to "print" adds. In most papers there are sidebar adds that you can click on if interested, but ignorable otherwise.

I think that advertisers are going to have to go back to "selling" more and relying on obnoxious/flashy adds less. In the end, people want to know about truly good deals or truly interesting products and will listen to a sales pitch on something they care about, and ignore the stuff they aren't interested in.

Re:Why only 3 days?

[ajanp]

"Live-plus-three" is basically an agreement between broadcasters and advertisers to agree to count viewers who watch the show within a 72 hour time period. It's pretty recent and it's being used nowadays due to the increasing number of viewers who watch shows via TiVO, DVR (I forget the exact number, but it's between 15-20% of American households now own a DVR), iPOD downloads, web broadcasts, etc.

Generally, adverstisers prefer to use "live" to determine rates (some commercials like movie releases can have less of an impact after time passes), broadcasters prefer "live-plus-seven", so I think "live-plus-three" became the compromise to include those people who do watch the show, but just aren't able to watch it live.

I'm not in that industry, but it seems like a pretty decent compromise (and I believe it's quickly becoming the new standard when negotiating ad rates) given the availability of recording devices and the significant amount of delayed viewing that occurs.

For Shame!

[CheeseburgerBrown]

Those of you who skip commercials are aware, I hope, that you're stealing television?

Being entertained is a privilege, not a right.

I mean, sure, you paid to buy the TV. And you pay your cable or satellite bill. And you bought the PVR along with the embedded fees for the various artists' unions. But, other than that, it's like you commercial skippers are trying to get something for nothing.

It's time to ask yourself what Jesus would do.

It's time to take some responsibility: if you enjoy quality programming, the onus is on you to not only watch the adverts but also to act on them. That's right: those commercials are worthless unless you exercise your obligation as a consumer to actually buy something.

So, what's our tally? Buy your TV, buy your PVR, line the pockets of the artist unions, pay for content delivery, watch the ads, act on the suggestions made in the ads -- now you're entitled to some entertainment.

Sadly, there's nothing much good on.

Voting System

[Yvan256]

This is all nice and good, but what I'd like to see is a voting system for TV ads. Digital cable, satellite, PVRs... they all allow some type of feedback, why not implement a voting system so you can vote ads up or down.

That way, annoying ads would be voted down (companies would stop paying to show it) and fun/good ads would be voted up (companies would know what style works).

Maybe add a third option to let them know they're showing it too often. Sometimes I like some ads but they appear so often as to become annoying.

Some DVR users may want to watch the ads.

[w3woody]

I fast forward--but for some ads I'll skip back and play the ad. The only reason why I don't like most advertising is because of ad saturation: after the first five hundred times I've seen an ad, the product is permanently burned into my brain--(*twitch* Ditech Mortgages *twitch*), and I don't need to see the ad anymore. Cute ads (the latest Apple Ads), ads for new movies, or for products I've never seen--I'll actually rewind the DVR and watch them.

Hell, with some of the tripe on TV nowadays sometimes the ads are the best part!