DVR Owners Don't Always Skip Commercials
A new study out by Nielsen seems to indicate that DVR owners watch far more commercials than some may think.
On average, owners of DVRs still end up watching about two-thirds of ads. A big reason for this is even through many use it to record shows, most still end up watching the show at its normal start time, which means the commercials cannot be fast-forwarded through.
However, as the time of viewing moves away from the actual start time of the program, playback of commercials falls off, as many would expect. It also seems to change with the genre of show. News and sports are commonly watched live, thus commercial viewership here is at its highest, the study finds.
In households with 18-34 year old viewers, almost all of that type of programming is seen the same day. 85 percent of playback for daytime shows occurs the same day, and 75 percent of nighttime shows.
"New digital technologies are changing the way people watch television and Nielsen is committed to helping clients understand and measure this new viewing behavior," Nielsen Media Research general manager Sara Erichson said.
About 40 percent of ads that could be skipped over are still viewed for a variety of reasons, Nielsen found. Analysts say this turns most companies understanding of the allure of DVR on its head -- instead of wanting to time-shift all of their viewing, DVR owners are just looking to time-shift some of it.
Even positioning of the commercial itself within the break will play a large part in whether it ends up being skipped over. TiVo has said it finds the beginning and end of commercial breaks have the highest viewership, with commercials near the middle viewed the least.
Nielsen also said that it has found that about one in five households currently have some type of digital video recording device.