Digital Home Thoughts: PVRs Pose No Threat to Advertising

"Trust those early technology adopters to meddle with a hot trend. Time-shifted TV viewing and rampant ad skipping has been one of the big concerns in the past two years as digital video recorders (DVRs) such as TiVo in the US started to get media attention. Yet after all the early indications about the radical effect DVRs were having on TV viewing - they allow one-button recording of shows from an electronic program guide and can "rewind" live television while continuing to record - a pilot study in the US has imploded a one-time seriously interesting theory about media consumption. Local TV networks and Foxtel will be chuffed by the findings from Houston - although oil-drenched Texans tend to be a little different to your average Australian. However, the numbers are sufficiently different from earlier research into DVR-enabled homes to spark plenty of interest."

The real worry was that during the later viewing of recorded programming - up to 70 per cent of people with DVRs said they were skipping ads. And it looks like another pilot study in the U.S. has poured water on the fiery issue of PVRs causing the downfall of television advertising, this time from research group Arbitron, making use of "portable people meters" - devices worn or carried by individuals that record encoded "timestamp" signals from radio and TV broadcasters when a program is broadcast. According to the Arbitron research, ad-skipping is nothing more than a "niche trend". I find this so hard to believe though because I do agree with the trend of ad-skipping and the research confirms the number for precentage of people performing such activities. So how is it that this isn't a major punch to advertisers? I just don't see it.