TV Advertising Needs Breakthrough To Rival DVRs

After analysing the US survey, DVR Love: Digital Video Recorder Users, Steve Hoffenberg, a researcher at Lyra said: “We consider the DVR to be a rare, genuine breakthrough product that will significantly impact people’s lives. We wont be surprised if 50 years from now, consumers describe the latest breakthrough as the greatest invention since the DVR. The TV advertising industry needs a breakthrough of equal magnitude.”

Results show that in the US, DVR users are making full use of the biggest DVR features; time shifted viewing and advertisement skipping – both an obvious concern for TV advertisers and something that they will be watching closely as DVRs break in to the mass market.

For TV advertisers, one of the most interesting findings will be that the average respondent confessed to skipping more than three-quarters of TV commercials with over half admitting to skipping 95% or more.

The report suggests that the longer users have had their DVR, the more advertisements they skip. If this is true, then advert skipping will not only increase as household penetration of DVRs grow but also as users gain more experience with their DVRs, which will further accelerate the aggregate amount of advertisement skipping. According to Strategy Analytics, global DVR sales are expected to reach 28 million by 2008 (see Global Integrated DVR Sales To Hit 28m By 2008)

At the touch of a button, viewers can watch programmes slightly after they start for the specific purpose of skipping and fast forwarding commercials. A feature that 10% of respondents are using, for 43% of programmes they watch, the survey revealed. Hoffenberg said: “Wording of our question clearly implies premeditation – this is, not only did the respondents intend to skip adverts when they began watching the programme, the desire to skip adverts impacted when they began watching.

Respondents were also asked to estimate the percentage of their television viewing time over the past six months. This could fall in to five categories; pre-recorded DVDs or videotapes, programmes that were controlled with a DVR while being broadcast, programmes previously recorded on a DVR and video on demand.

Time-shifted viewing was the clear winner with 42% of DVR users time being spent watching pre-recorded programmes. Programmes during broadcast came in second with 37% of viewing time being spent on this, while video on demand and pay per view trailed at 3% and 2% respectively.

Lyra Research said that the most revealing results of the survey came from the last question. It simply asked respondents to give any further brief comments on their time using a digital video recorder. Of the 611 respondents, 296 entered a comment and 85 of these used the word ‘love’ at least once in describing their affection for DVRs.

The survey revealed the majority of DVR users thought DVRs had a positive effect on their TV viewing and with this in mind, Hoffenberg says the inevitable route for DVR penetration is to enter into the mass market and not just be limited to early adopters. He added: “This seems particularly ironic in an era when plenty of people still complain that there is nothing good to watch on TV.”

However, not all respondents were quite as impressed with the new device, one complained: “Basically, a complete rip-off, another rich man’s toy.”