Its become obvious to the Television Networks and the Advertisers who pay the Networks bills that DVRs are having an impact on their business. The big question has been what kind of impact? Some have said DVRs cause people to watch more, and they are still watching commercials too. Well today AdAge has a story that talks about how the DVR is affecting the actual purchase of goods advertised on television.
TELEVISION COMMERCIALS LESS EFFECTIVE ON DVR USERS
The results of a three-year study by Information Resources Inc. show a statistical drop in purchases of brand-name, advertised goods for DVR families versus non-DVR families. The study also found that spending dropped by as much as 5% in homes with DVRs and that drop in spending directly affected those brands being advertised in television.
One interesting finding was that do-it-yourself, food, home & garden as well as lower quality shows were time-shifted less often than other types of programming. It attributed this to the type of viewer as well as the fact that many of these shows are watched by channel surfers who are less apt to fast forward through commercials.
DVR USERS WATCH MORE TELEVISION
Last month, Nielsen announced findings of their study showing a significant increase in television viewing and some shifts in the way people were watching television due to the DVR-effect:
- Time Shifting of Television shows extends prime-time viewing to later in the evening (this happens in my house just so we can skip the commercials.
- The more viewers time-shift their shows, the more TV they watch.
- Dramas account for 1/3rd of all time-shifted viewing while talk shows, soaps and reality programming are also heavily time-shifted.
Both studies show that DVRs have a significant impact on the television industry. I think we'll continue to see less Dramas on non-premium TV channels, more in-show product placement, more online television content where it is difficult to skip the commercials and fewer broadcast networks in the long run. DVRs are here to stay so the industry has no choice except to evolve with those changes.
