DVRs not dooming TV ad revenue as expected: study
There are a few “can’t go back” items in the world of consumerism, products or services that – once you make the jump/upgrade – you can’t possibly retreat back to the simpler version.
HD TV is one. Heated car seats are another. So is air conditioning. And, if you’ve laboured in a single bed for years, a queen size mattress is a luxury surely no one can pass up.
A newcomer these days has undoubtedly become the digital video recorder (DVR), a device so sublime any savvy TV watcher never has to a view another commercial.
Business-wise, DVRs seem like a quite nasty product to networks, who largely rely on ad revenue to operate their business. More DVRs mean, in theory, less people are watching commercials. So ad revenue has to be plummeting these days, right?
Right?
Quite to the contrary, actually, according to numbers from the Wall Street Journal and a study on DVRs from a professor at Duke University.
In a surprising turn, Duke’s Carl Mela has shown that DVRs are actually having little impact on advertising, as the ability to skip trough ads has had “no effect on buying behaviour and that not as many people fast-forward through television commercials as originally feared.”
His key reasons:
1. About 95 per cent of people still watch TV live, meaning they can’t skip ads
2. The ability to record a show and view it later leads to consumers actually watching more television, and
3. While viewers fast-forward through 70 per cent of commercials in shows they recorded, they still look at the screen to know where to resume play, meaning they’re still catching the TV and being exposed to advertisements
It all sounds good on paper, when you sit back and look at it. And, indeed, the proof may be in the numbers. CBS announced this week its first-quarter ad sales grew by an impressive 17 per cent this year, a peak not entirely to credit on the network carrying February’s Super Bowl.
Yet the sceptic in me wonders if this data can sustain.
DVR users out there: don’t you fast-forward through as many commercials as possible? Wouldn’t your behaviour dictate the opposite of CBS’ numbers and the Duke University study?
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: PirateKitty | May 7, 2021 3:04:34 PM
Heck yeah I skip the commercials. Aside from hockey games, we don't watch live tv! Even if we want to watch the show when it's airing, we'll set it to record and start watching 10 minutes late so we can speed past the commercials.
Posted by: free ringtones | May 9, 2021 3:57:45 AM
or better yet just download the whole show ... NO ADS
Posted by: whatsup | May 9, 2021 12:19:53 PM
I still forget that I can skip the ads when I'm watching a recorded show so I end up watching most of them anyways
Posted by: YoutubeGeneration | May 9, 2021 12:30:49 PM
Ads have never influenced my buying anyways, If I want something I go out and find information on products and the competing products and choose the one with best value and quality/features. Guess maybe thats why I dont watch T.V. since I choose to "spend" my free time allotment on higher quality products e.g. internet and outdoor sports.
Posted by: Paul | May 10, 2021 1:09:20 PM
Used to there was a box that would eliminate you hearing/ seeing commerciales BEFORE taping,WHERE are they?Would sell a lot.
Posted by: rasta | May 13, 2021 7:30:02 PM
youtubegen, rasta ear u bredrin, me spend me time with me plants in the outdoors too..big up!