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DVRs Help Some TV Shows Improve Ratings
ubermiester writes "After years of panicked lawsuits by content providers against TiVo and DVR technology in general, the NYTimes is reporting on yet another lesson for the content providers to learn and then immediately forget: 'Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars, and beer. According to Nielsen, 46 percent of viewers 18 to 49 years old for all four networks taken together are watching the commercials during playback, up slightly from last year.' The article also notes viewership increases 'in the range of 7 to 12 percent, with some shows having increases of more than 20 percent when DVR ratings are added. The four networks together are averaging a 10 percent increase."
Not only is it trivial to skip commercials for a shifted show, but it can do it automatically.
I have also adjusted my life to only watching what I have recorded. I'm not sure when the last time I turned on 'Live TV' was. I have taken to keeping the last/freshest five episodes from a number of programs I like to watch, and I select from between them. Myth automatically deletes the old ones, and I find five or so is plenty for my families needs.
That being said, even seeing a commercial these days just feels odd to me, let alone watching it.
Recorded shows increase viewership? Like pirated movies increase movie ticket sales? Like pirated music increases digital music sales?
Question is, will the media giants really wake up and stop all this lawsuit nonsense. Will RIAA, MPAA and other copyright trolls really give up the ghost and embrace the digital age and realise the potential of the internet?
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. - Peter F. Drucker
What are the odds that most people use the time during commercials to go get themselves a drink or something and aren't actually watching them? Sure with a DVR you could skip over them but it could very well be just a habit not to do so.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
skipping ads is communism / terrorism / child-unfriendly :P
Requiem for the American Dream
Back then, when TV was mostly over the air and free I watched commercials. Now that I pay for TV I won't tolerate commercials. I DVR any show I watch that has commercials and watch it at a later date when I can skim through the commercials. It is a rare commercial that I watch. I stop only for those that seem interesting, i.e. have pretty chicks featured prominently! :)
We have always been at war with Eurasia!
When I'm online I'm just not that interested in going to a website to watch movie trailers, but if one happens to be on while I'm 30s skipping, I'm a lot more inclind to watch. My web-mode is very reading centric with lots of clicking. My TV mode is very much a passive observer.
I don't understand why those with PVRs still watch the ads. .
In our case, the wife likes watching the ads as it's her primary way to learn about new products and services.
Commercials give me a break to go pee, make a phone call, or grab another brew. I still need that break when I'm watching a DVR'd show. I'm not actually watching the commercials.
Also, who wants to be told (via advertising) that they have the IQ of a boiled-egg and that hypno-toad (*) says to buy the product ?
Having said that I helped my tv move out five years ago and every day my brain has clawed its way slightly further back from the brink.
(*) If only they had people as charismatic as hypno-toad in ads.
Requiem for the American Dream
I don't understand why those with PVRs still watch the ads.
I enjoy ads that I find clever or interesting - for example, I love most of the ones Jack in the Box (a US hamburger chain) makes. Since I skip through the commercial breaks using my Tivo's 30-second skip function, I'll often catch just enough of an ad so I can tell if it's likely to catch my interest - in which case, I watch it.
If I had to estimate, I'd say I watch at most 15 percent of the commercials, though; and that's likely a high estimate.
I think the bottom line is: When I watch ads, I'm doing so for the same reason I watch a TV show - for entertainment.
#DeleteChrome
"After years of panicked lawsuits against TiVo and DVR technology in general, the NYTimes is reporting on yet another lesson for content providers to learn and then immediately forget"
"According to Nielsen, 46 percent of viewers 18 to 49 years old for all four networks taken together are watching the commercials during playback, up slightly from last year"
"some shows having increases of more than 20 percent when DVR ratings are added"
So, the ad value drops by 54%... But up to 20% more viewers are added... Giving, at best, 55.2% of your former ad viewership.
Yes, 55.2% of your old value is SO much better than the former 100%.
Drawing the conclusion that content providers were wrong to freak out about DVRs is farcical. Their product is still worth at least 45% less to advertisers. Yes, 45% less is better than 54% less, that 20% bump from DVRs hooking more viewers is nice and all... But, seriously, it's like saying "Hey, we burned down half your home but, good news, we totally discovered a small basement you didn't know about in the charred wreckage. Aren't you grateful we torched your home?!"
1) Commercials make good intermission points to let the dogs in or out of the house, take a bathroom break, or whatever. No need to do the FF thing when you need to walk away from the boob tube a second (or 30) anyway.
2) Some commercials are:
a) Related to something you may like to buy soon (ie. Thats a nice looking car, etc.)
b) Clever or interesting enough for you to want to view it.
c) Taking advantage of me falling asleep in front of the TV again, so the commercials played without interruptions.
These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
then the vcr was supposed to kill the cinema house
now the internet is supposed to kill the cinema house
meanwhile:
http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/
lesson: people fear losing control. as if control had anything to do with making money off media in the first place
in your desperate attempt to retain control, dear media execs, you might want to notice you are wasting a lot of energy over issues that have nothing to do with your bottom line. only your fear tells you this is the case
in your business strategies, you need more zen, less mafia goons
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The only reason I wind up watching commercials is because I forgot I'm watching something on the DVR and I am allowed to fast forward through it! I must be getting old..
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
How predictable...the first 3 three comments are about how slashdotters don't watch ads on their DVRs and don't understand why anybody does.
So, am I psychic, or do you idiots really have nothing to offer?
Since I am one of those 'idiots', I guess I'll respond with -
This is Slashdot. Exactly what were you expecting?
Back in the early 90's, The Ben Stiller Show did a skit that I thought pretty much summed up everything that sucks about Jay Leno. The skit is set at the tryouts for the Tonight Show and Leno just gets up and starts dancing around like a stupid puppet. When someone from off camera asks him if that's supposed to be funny, he answers "Who cares, you're going to give this job to me no matter what I do, right?" That's Leno's entire career in a nutshell.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
One of the benefits to the networks as far as ads go... our household might actually record 2 prime-time shows at once(dual tuner). Then we might potentially accidentally watch commercials on either one while we're waiting on our better half to get back from the bathroom or the kitchen. We will also go back and watch the interesting commercials... (Not the ones about medications and so forth though... those dollars aren't helping the drug companies at all... just driving up prices.)
Too bad there aren't that many real people working in the research departments for the networks... they might actually get a real idea about viewing habits... instead of approximating patterns based on computer models.
I use the 30 second skip button on my Tivo to flash through the commercials. This typically means that the only commercial I see is either the first one of the break, or the last one of the break. If the first one catches my attention in the first 3 seconds, I end up watching it, and if the last 5 seconds of the last one is intriguing (say, has a punch line but not the setup), I will rewind to watch it. Occasionally, I will end up watching a commercial in the middle if the quick flash draws my brain in too (typically with some sort of interesting colors, etc).
Otherwise, I just skip through them. Seems like there could be money made studying the unique commercial viewing habits of DVR users. I'm not sure if my own experiences are unique or common.
Also, is 'had commercial playing' the finest granularity Nielsen can provide? What percent of those people actually remembered what the ad was about? And how does that percentage compare to live TV watchers?
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
A beowulf cluster of smug elitist know-it-alls, you insensitive clod!
Ice Cream has no bones.
I agree. I've been a TiVo user for years. I do skip a fair number of commercials, but there is a good reason for that.
Some commercials are very good, entertaining. I don't mind them. I may stop to watch them. Apple's ads usually do this. Many commercials are generic, and I don't care that much. I'll often just let them play and avoid them.
The problem is getting torn out of the program when I'm really watching. I enjoy watching the latest episode of HOUR_LONG_SHOW, but I hate watching the same commercial once per commercial break. Let's say I record 2 or 3 hours of television off a cable channel. It's very common for me to be given 8-10 chances to see one ad. Over. And over. And over.
By the 3rd view, I really don't care. By the 6th, I want to kill you. You're not helping yourself at that point. It's probably better I do skip the ad at that point.
When commercials are funny/cute/interesting/catchy you can easily get me to watch. When it's like hearing a 2 year old say "Yes! I'm the hemorrhoid lady!" for the 40th time, I jump for the remote.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
They say that DVRs have increased ratings for shows as if it's surprising. Isn't this the whole point of a DVR though? You record it because you would not have otherwise been able to watch the show in its regularly scheduled time slot. So instead of just plain missing the show, you record it and watch it later. Instead of having to pick between two shows where one will get watched and the other will get missed, you record them both, and they both get watched. In the latter, the DVR has increased your potential audience. I'm a little surprised about the commerical watching though. As a MythTV user, I skip commercials altogether without the need for any user interaction. However, in cases where the commercials are not skipped (like if I start watching a show fifteen minutes into the broadcast), it's about a 60/40 split as to whether I'll bother fast forwarding. Someimes I'm really that lazy where lifting my arm to pick up the remote seems like too much effort. Other times it's the perfect bathroom break. Even though MythTV skips my commercials and could potentially pause for a break whenever I want, I tend to do it when there is a commercial simply because the flow of the show dictates a pause for commercial. It's kind of weird to pause in the middle of a conversation and come back a few minutes later. It totally messes with the flow.
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
It occurs to me to wonder if a person who is strong-willed and motivated enough to take the trouble to skip commercials on a DVR, is of the sort who weren't listening to the commercials anyway even if they did occasionally stare at the screen during commercial breaks before the era of DVR, and further, whether the sort of person who passively listens to commercials with or without a DVR is the sort of person who tends to be influenced by commercials with which to begin. Perhaps worried advertisers and network executives realistically aren't losing nearly as much of their actual, receptive (if hard to measure) audience(s) as they fear.
A truly excellent pizza parlor is a delight unto the heavens. Treasure the sauce and the toppings!
then the vcr was supposed to kill the cinema house
A bit off-topic, but: In my (and my wife's) case, I usually say "Netflix and a LCD television killed the cinema house" - but in truth it was the various cinema houses that killed themselves off. Ridiculous prices for food; Overpriced admission costs, plus (adding insult to injury) 20 minutes of commercials before you get to see the movie; and having to tolerate the obnoxious behavior of some other patrons - or try to deal with it myself - because there's no such thing as an usher anymore.
#DeleteChrome
Because you miss all the irony if you skip them. Like ads for Carl's Jr. or Jack in the Box during exercise shows.
The very best one was last night. Premiere of "Sex Addict Rehab With Dr. Drew." A facility full of sex addicts, men and women, models, rock stars, and an "adult video star". Not a single one of them sexually attractive in any way, but they're all sitting around talking about having sex with each other. The "adult star", knowing shes going to a facility to treat her addiction, tried sneaking in a dildo she called "Ron Jeremy", and a pair of knee-pads. Epitome of skank.
The major advertiser? Trojan. Not for condoms, but for women's mini-vibrators.
I don't know if it was sad or funny.
TV ratings are collected in two different ways. Some people, like you, fill in diaries to report their viewing, but Nielsen also maintains panels of homes with meters attached to all the video devices in the household. These meters report viewing pretty much on a minute-by-minute (or maybe these days second-by-second) basis. There's a national meter panel, and metered panels in the largest markets as well. National networks (both broadcast and cable) and national advertisers depend on these data from metered households. The diary method is used to measure viewing in local markets during "sweeps" periods (February, May, July, November). Smaller markets don't have the revenues to justify full-time metering and use the cheaper, and obviously somewhat more inaccurate, diary method instead.