As more and more consumers start replacing their VCR's with DVD Recorders and PVRs such as TiVo's and other HDD based video recorders, this is really upsetting advertisers, since they fear that consumers with DVRs skip over each ad break they encounter and a time will come where it is no longer worth advertising on TV. In fact, just over a year ago, the US Congress proposed a bill to criminalise the skipping of commercials. TiVo even tested the use of pop-up ads should a user skip an ad break and Microsoft recently filed a patent that cover the penalising users who skip commercials.
Well, executives from ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, UPN and WB have jointly done some research into consumer's TiVo and other DVR viewing habits and found that many consumers actually watch the commercials instead of skipping over them. Their survey finds that those who use HDD based DVRs watch 12% more TV than those without a HDD based DVR and out of these with HDD based DVRs, 50% watch the commercials during their recorded program, not to mention some going back to watch certain ads again and 53% have actually rewound back to the commercials they skipped over earlier.
Finally, when it comes to DVR usage, 90% of DVR owners still watch their programmes live at their scheduled programmes, which include the commercials. At present, 8% of the US homes with TVs have at least one DVR, however this is expected to triple over the next five years.
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Their data reveals that people with DVRs spend 12% more time watching TV than people who don't own the hard-disc recorders. According to the networks, more than 50% of DVR users not only paid attention to commercials, but also recalled the ads they saw. On top of that, 53% of DVR users have hit the rewind button and gone back to ads they initially skipped through. |
It would be interesting to see how the executives from these TV stations have conducted their survey as TV ads is the most common thing I hear people complain about on commercial TV, yet their survey reveals that 50% of HD based DVR owners actually watch the ads. On the other hand, if fast forwarding the ads on DVRs is considered such a big problem, then surely this would have also been a serious problem when it comes to movies on DVD and especially back in the days of VHS, which did not support navigation restrictions.
Source: Ultimate AV - News Desk
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