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)."

perhaps they are recording the ads

[Le'BottomEh (750785)]

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

Re:

[QBasicer (781745)]

I don't own a DVR, but I never bothered to fastforward during ads when watching VHS. Sometimes you saw the old commercials you remember from a long time ago, which is kinda fun...I guess.

Actually, ads don't really bother me, unless they're too redundant (same 2 ads every break, repeated once or twice during each break).

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[thePowerOfGrayskull (905905)]

I heard an NPR story on this issue. A study found not only that most DVR users do play the commercials, but even users who self-reported skipping ads always or almost always, actually watched far more ads than they thought.

I've find that I sometimes start doing something else when the commercial starts... thus forgetting to skip the commercials (about half of the commercials for any given recorded show). On the other hand, I think it's safe to say that any 'high suspense' shows will have a much higher rate of skipped commercials.

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[walt-sjc (145127)]

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" [danwho.net] or tampons...

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

Re:

[vux984 (928602)]

the article clearly indicated that they were NOT skipping the ads.

I have a DVR, I skip a lot of the ads, but not all of them. Sometimes I *want* a break. Sometimes the commercials are entertaining.

I'm sure some people almost always skip the commercials.
I'm sure some people almost never skip the commercials.

But the bottom line is if you start looking at people with viewers, at least SOME of them will be watching the commercials. That's much 'better' than just assuming none of them ever do.

Define "better"

[Mateo_LeFou (859634)]

"if you start looking at people with viewers, at least SOME of them will be watching the commercials. That's much 'better' than just assuming none of them ever do."

If you mean "better" in terms of scientific accuracy, you are right. But I'd like to suggest that "assuming none of them ever do" has a useful purpose too:

If you assume none of them ever do, you can convince Congress that the sky is falling and get technological control measures such as the DMCA or worse [wikipedia.org] in place.

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[Bobartig (61456)]

Me and my girlfriend are aggressive "Always skip the Ads" people. Mainly because we are impatient and want to watch more TV in less time. When we go other places that have TV's (and at some point play ads), we're constantly like "What the hell is that?" because we watch so few ads now, and some of them are freakishly weird the first few times you see them.

And then people we know will say 'you know that ad where [insert ad description here]?' and we always say 'we don't watch ads...' they always stare at us like we have a second head or something (as if ad skipping DVR's weren't 5+ years old).

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[jellomizer (103300)]

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:

[Le'BottomEh (750785)]

I don't own a TiVo but I have friends who do. I'm glad that people find it useful. I, myself, don't really have much time to watch TV and won't go shit crazy if I miss an episode of Battlestar Galactica. When I'm actively watching a show at my friend's place, we always skip the commercials. However, you are right, if you want some background noise while you work, you probably won't care if it's commercials or not.

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[1u3hr (530656)]

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

[misleb (129952)]

I use the TiVo as a tool to make my life better.

My life is much better since I started indiscrimnately blocking/skipping advertisements. Same thing with SPAM and email. Once I took the time to implement a really good spamassassin filter, my life got better.

. 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.

Work and effort? I just download the shows from bittorrent where someone else has already cut out the commercials. And when I was using MythTV to record them myself, Myth automatically skipped the commercials for me. But then, I'm an anal liberal who just wants to block/skip commercials "just because they are there." Though I'm not sure what it is has to do with being "liberal." Do conservatives somehow enjoy selling bits and pieces of their mind/soul to advertisers? Is watching advertisements a "family value?"

Frankly, I'm baffled by anyone who willingly sits through advertisements when skipping them is so easy these days. Is the programming that ya'll watch just so empty and shallow that advertising is just as entertaining? WTF?

It isn't just about idealism, either. You can save a very significant amount of time by skipping ads. 1 hour shows become 40 minute shows. 30 minute shows become 20 minute shows. Not to mention the beneficial effect it has on attention span.

-matthew

Re:

[misleb (129952)]

You seem to have spend days of work and completely realtered your life, just to avoid seeing adds, you are spending your relaxation time to avoid watching adds. You are on a major quest to save the world from something that is not a real threat.

No, I installed MythTV to get DVR capabilities which also happens to have commercial auto-skip as a feature. The time I have saved by skipping ads easily makes up for the time spent setting up the DVR. 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there really adds up quickly.

As for

Re:perhaps they are recording the ads

[Maximum Prophet (716608)]

Your Tivo knows which parts you've fast forwarded through, and which parts you have repeated. All this info is sent back to the mother ship.

Just a clarification...

[Manchot (847225)]

That data is not tied to an individual's account: it is simply aggregated. This is stated in captial letters very clearly in their Privacy Policy (tivo.com/privacy), which they make you read before you sign up. Even if you only glance through the policy, there's little chance that you'll miss it. Moreover, they allow you to opt out by calling a phone number. Of course, this information isn't just used for their financial benefit, since Tivo's "Suggestions" feature (one of the things that gives Tivo the edge

I think most DVR users don't fast forward.

[rsvedersky (132592)]

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.

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[Scrameustache (459504)]

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.

I watch shows on DVD, and sometimes I wish that there was a commercial in there, so I can sit and digest the big shocking reveal that just occurred without being distracted with technicalities like finding the remote and the pause button.

Then again, I also watch regular broadcast TV, I wish I never had to switch channel to avoid an annoying ad for something I'll never ever even consider buying.

The lesson is: Choice is good, anti-skip is evil.

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

[wikdwarlock (570969)]

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.

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[Bobartig (61456)]

When the 'dreaded' live tv appears (ok, we have IPTV, but it has a live tv buffer all the same), we just pause the tv for about 10 minutes and read/browse until we've cached up enough to skip the rest of the ads. If its a movie (= more ads), we might fix a meal, do some chores, or play video games for half an hour so we can skip them later.

Some DVR users may want to watch the ads.

[w3woody (44457)]

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!

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

[DrEldarion (114072)]

I do fast forward most of the time, but sometimes during that fast forwarding I will actually stop and rewind an ad that grabs my eye.

To me, this shows that people will watch well-made commercials. (Witness: Superbowl commercials. People love them.)

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

[flanksteak (69032)]

I do something similar, and it makes me wonder sometimes just how my brain works.

When I'm watching a recording on the DVR, I often forget to FF through the ads,

but,

when I'm watching something live, I almost always instantly reach for the remote to try to FF, only to be informed by the tv that I can't.

sheesh.

Re:

[XxtraLarGe (551297)]

When I'm watching a recording on the DVR, I often forget to FF through the ads

This is nothing new. I do the same thing on this old device called a VCR. My wife's always yelling at me "You can fast forward, you know!" I'm not sure what it is, but I think there's something subliminally appealing about advertisements that make you want to watch them, even when you don't have to.

And they know this...how?

[Ngarrang (1023425)]

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!

Re:

[Lockejaw (955650)]

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.

Nielson's typical measurement processes are 1) having subjects keep detailed logs of their watching and 2) installing their own monitoring systems on subjects' TV sets.

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[Otter (3800)]

I often thought of that same thing , how can they track what I watch and what I do.

Nielsen has no idea what you are doing. They recruit viewers who install special monitoring equipment and/or keep diaries and extrapolate that to the overall population.

Ads

[Vexor (947598)]

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 (956437)]

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.

Re:

[Shabbs (11692)]

Same here. But even when we're FF'ing through the commercials, we're still getting a gist of what is being advertised, since we've all seen the commercials before and recognize them. I know when we FF, sometimes I'll comment to my wife "Oh man that commercial is funny." And sometimes I'll even rewind just to see it again for laughs.

I'm curious as to how they find out this info. Do they just call people up and ask if they saw the commercial during such and such episode and if they were using a PVR or watchin

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[SQLGuru (980662)]

I agree.....watch the show but skip most ads, watch the ones that are different or interesting. The only problem I have is that by watching some of the same shows (especially those that are new and syndicated at the same time), they don't hit the right demographic. I watch a lot of Law & Order....and there's a marathon on USA like every two or three days it seems. There is almost never an ad that appeals to me....and usually it's the same ones for each episode. Those, I skip. The new ads during fir

Bias....

[packetmon (977047)]

Nielsen's new commercial data include an average viewer total for all of a show's commercials when it airs, as well as averages for those who watch commercials on a DVR up to seven days later. Did it occur to Nielen that it probably takes users a little longer to get use to the new functions on a DVR so they likely haven't even understood the concept "Oh man you mean I don't have to watch commercials!". I'd like to see them re-take these numbers in 3 month intervals and watch those numbers drop like the stock market during the dotcom depression

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[mcmonkey (96054)]

Did it occur to Nielen that it probably takes users a little longer to get use to the new functions on a DVR so they likely haven't even understood the concept "Oh man you mean I don't have to watch commercials!".

I think they're talking about 7 days after the program is recorded, not 7 days after getting a DVR. I also think most DVR users have seen (and maybe even own) a VCR, so they're probably familiar with the 'fast forward' concept.

I'd say marketing folks might be interested in DVR-use trends and h

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[Irish_Samurai (224931)]

Did it occur to you that DVR technology is not anywhere close to new and that people already get the idea. Hell, the concept of fast forwarding was pretty much introduced with the VCR.

some dvrs dont skip adds?

[icebones (707368)]

I had no idea that some DVRs wouldn't FF thorough adds. I hope my cable company never "upgrades" to one. It's reached the point that when i actually do watch a show when it airs, I get annoyed that I can't FF through the commercials. The only time i let the comercials run on something I've recorded is when i need to get up for a minute.

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[zippthorne (748122)]

There's a trick to this: don't ever start watching shows when they start. Most shows have about 46 minutes of actual show to the hour, so if you start watching 15 minutes in, you'll finish at roughly the same time.

DVR

[LordPhantom (763327)]

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:

[k3v0 (592611)]

you can program this into the remote and then select which button you want to be the skip. http://dcortesi.com/2005/05/04/motorola-dct6412-co mcast-dvr-30-second-skip/ [dcortesi.com]

Commercials? What commercials?

[jbarr (2233)]

Our habits were similar until we built a SageTV [sagetv.com] system. Now, it goes something like this:

1. After a show completes recording, ShowAnalyzer auto-scans the recording for commercial breaks and flags them. This process completes within about 2-3 minutes of the completion of the recording.

2. We watch the show with SageTV's ComSkip plugin enabled, and when a commercial break begins, playback just jumps forward to the marked end of the commercial break, resuming the show content. It's slicker than snot.

3. Should we want to watch commercials, we either temporarily disable the ComSkip plugin, or we just FF or REW into the marked commercial section.

And the auto-marking is 's amazingly accurate--probably 98% accurate. The combination of SageTV + ShowStopper + ComSkip plugin gives us very successful commercial marking. No, it's not perfect, and sometimes shows get mis-marked, but it's very rare.

Other home-brew DVR's like MythTV and BeyondTV have similar capabilities.

And when we want to do something else (food, bathroom, phone, etc.) it's just a simple press of the Pause or Stop buttons

Commercials are not evil. Forcing us to watch them is.

SageTVTips.com [sagetvtips.com]

You know why?

[rob1980 (941751)]

Because people have trained themselves for years to go get a drink during commercial breaks.

For Shame!

[CheeseburgerBrown (553703)]

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.

Re:

[elrous0 (869638)]

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

Scream "That magical box has tiny people inside!" in aramaic and run away?

DVRs can help commercials

[acomj (20611)]

I have on 2 occations while fast forwarding through the adds, seen something interesting (a concert/performance I didn't know about) and rewinded it to watch get the web site.

Granted it hasn't happened often, but if the ads are something your actually interested it the DVR allows you to go back and check out.

So true about BSG, SG-1, other "geek" shows.

[badboy_tw2002 (524611)]

Geeks love tech. Geeks love sci-fi. But a lot of geeks also break the mold of the shutin nerd with no social life. Friday nights have traditionally been "family nights" (TGIF comes to mind) when the programming generally skews younger because the family with kids is actually home watching TV. If you gear a show in the 18-35 range, generally we're not at home Friday - you're competing against movie openings, bar nights, shows, poker games, etc. So is it really a surprise that all us tech loving geeks ar

Ads == (bathroom) or (beer) or (snack) + break

[erroneus (253617)]

Ads serve the same purpose when live or recorded. It's time to get up and get something or do something. Yeah... it means people are recording the ads and yeah, it does mean the ads should bring more revenue. Now STOP trying to mess with our home recorders!!!

Voting System

[Yvan256 (722131)]

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.

How sustainable

[btempleton (149110)]

Yes, I have noticed that many DVR users, perhaps call them "less sophisticated" ones do not always FF over the ads.

However, we MythTV users don't FF over ads, the skip is instantaneous. The system makes judements, about 95% accurate
over where the ad bounds are. When an ad is coming up, it says "3 minute commercial break" in a pop up and you push
a key to skip it. If it has guessed wrong on the length that's usually obvious, and of course it's obvious on the
start. With technologies like this, which the studios have sued to keep out of PVRs, there will be few who don't
skip the breaks, or who even notice interesting ads and rewind to watch them.

VOLUME of commercials remind me

[PoderOmega (677170)]

I forget to fast forward sometimes, but unfortunately for the advertisers I do not have any volume normalization on my TV. So when I reach for the remote to turn down the BLARING commercials it reminds me that I can just fast forward through them.

I've been saying this for years...

[slapout (93640)]

...if the show comes on while I'm at work, I _can't_ watch it. Unless I can record it and play it back later. Then there's a chance I'll watch the commercials. If I can't time shift, I don't even have a chance at watching the commercials!

Re:

[Aladrin (926209)]

Well, the -original- point of dvr/pvr was that you could watch your show later, without having to be tied to the TV at certain times. Some of us actually use it that, and the ad-skipping is a bonus.

Re:Why only 3 days?

[ajanp (1083247)]

"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.

Re:

[SQLGuru (980662)]

I watch more TV with my laptop open than without. Go to those URLs. Look up what else an actor might have been in. Check out Slashdot. Play "brain dead" games like Poker or non-twitch, non-timed games. That's my idea of interactive TV.

Layne