Are DVR Owners Still Watching Commercials?

We've all seen the reports before of how people with DVRs supposedly don't skip commercials. While my TV viewing has definitely changed since I got a DVR, I have to say that I still watch plenty of commercials so I have to agree with the basics of an article at the NYTimes.com:

People with digital video recorders like TiVo never watch commercials, right?

Add that to the list of urban — and suburban — myths.

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.

One thing the article states:

DVR owners account for about 6 percent of all TV viewing, but that figure is likely to grow, said Tracey Scheppach, vice president and video innovations director at Starcom USA. “Four of five people use the word ‘love’ when they describe this product, and when you have a product that powerful, it is going to become mainstream,” Ms. Scheppach said.

That 6 percent figure seems awful low to me so I have to question how well all of this is being tracked. What's funny to note is how when DVRs first came out, the major networks were throwing a fit and saying no one was watching commercials anymore. Notice how the last few years we haven't heard any complaints from the networks and we've even heard from networks that say DVRs are helping advertising? Why did the networks back off? Well obviously they realized DVRs are here to stay and whether advertising is being hurt or not, whining about it is only going to cause advertisers to want to pay you less to run their commercials. Isn't America great?

Be sure to check out the rather lengthy article ay the NY Times.

AT NYTimes.com

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