New Data Suggests DVR Owners Watch Less, Not More (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

MediaPost.com ^ | July 27, 2006 | David Goetzl

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Thursday Morning Good News...

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Ping

[doc30]

Makes sense to me. If you have DVR, that means you are more selective of what you watch and when you want to watch it. You don't just vegetate in front of whatever is on the box.

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And the advertisers follow the eyeballs. Always...

[Callahan]

Prepare for product placements galore and the "Tylenol CSI: New York Show" as advertisers look for ways to get around this trend.

[abb]

Prepare for product placements galore and the "Tylenol CSI: New York Show" as advertisers look for ways to get around this trend.

The Suits at the networks may try this strategy in a futile attempt to hold on to paying advertisers, but I predict they'll simply follow the eyeballs and move to the internet...

[Wonder Warthog]

"TiVo's new DVR behavior data will come from a new division of the company dedicated to the study of DVR usage. TiVo promises to provide advertisers with viewership and skipping data for ads viewed in time-shifted fashion--parsed by network, genre, day-part, and pod position. (Audience demo info will not be available)."

Which is why I won't own a TIVO (or any other DVR device which has a data return link to "set the channels"). What I want is a device JUST LIKE A VCR, but which uses hard drives instead of tape.

[aft_lizard]

Ever since I got my DVR I have most definately watched less TV, with the ability to pre-record my shows I dont have to sit and wait for other shows and commercials to view what I want, plus if I am watching a live program I can pause it and come back 30 minutes later which means I have less time to watch what comes next.

[aft_lizard]

Purchase an HTPC, costs more but it guarantees you controll it not some faceless corporation trying to make money for tampons or douche.

[DB]

I use an older ReplayTV. It skips commercials automatically.

Later models don't. The networks sued ReplayTV and won... So you can't buy any DVR that automatically skips commercials anymore, even though that's what customers want.

[SmoothTalker]

I love my DVR and enjoy my TV a lot more with it. I end up watching less because I don't pointlessly chanel surf much anymore. I watch the shows that interest me when I want to watch them. Awesome.

[ken5050]

As a huge baseball fan, one of the pleasures of a summer evening is an hour or two in front of the tube. On my cable system, on average there will be anywheres from 3-6 games on every night..and I can honestly say that in the last 15 years I have NEVER watched a commercial between innings...I switch to another game. And 99% of my friends probably do the same thing. Indeed, the elongated time..now about 3 minutes between innings..makes it easier to do so, and more likely..You'd think thank advertisers would have wised up years ago..The MSM is wasting their time worring about DVRs..they lost that battle long ago when the remote control was invented..

[meowmeow]

I actually watch more TV now that I have a DVR. Before, even if I liked a particular show (e.g., South Park), I just couldn't be bothered to commit myself to a particular time each week. Now I can set up the DVR to automatically record all new episodes and I can watch them whenever I want, all at once and commercial free.

[calex59]

People should be up in arms about TV anyway. The promise of "pay" TV(cable and satellite)was that we would never have to watch commercials, you payed as you went therefore there would be no commercials. Now we have to pay for our cable or satellite and, in most cases, have to still put up with commercials.

Even more irritating is the new trend of flashing commericials onto the screen as the show is running. Usually right after the regular commercials have run and right before the regular commericials begin.

This is perhaps one of the most irritating developments of TV, and the FCC should put a halt to it. Once the show starts, no damn commercials on the screen. Also, the FCC should make any provider of pay type TV screen out the commercials so viewers don't have to watch them. Either we pay through commercials or we pay directly, not both.

[conservativehusker]

I love my DVR...We tape a show then start watching it about 20 min into it..after fast forwarding through the commercials you end up right on time at the end..

I look at commercials like taxes..if they were alot shorter I wouldn't have as much problem staying on the channel...but some of these shows have 3-5 minutes of commercials every 5 -8 minutes...I think just as with taxes less is more...

[KarlInOhio]

The next thing I expect to see is a scroller at the bottom of every channel like some of the news channels have, except with continual advertising instead of news headlines. Maybe even reduce the size of the program so you can have some extra advertising on the side of the screen. Blech!

[Wonder Warthog]

"Purchase an HTPC, costs more but it guarantees you controll it not some faceless corporation trying to make money for tampons or douche."

I was holding off on purchasing "home theater" stuff until a bit closer to the deadline to the forced "high-definition changeover" and for the "flat-screen TV" technology to settle down (and "reliable up") a bit.

Got any system recommendations??? Preferably not "build-it-yourself"---I already do too much of THAT.

[SSR1]

I hate how the networks will run a commercial on a scroll just as a show starts back up again from a commercial break. They are incredibly distracting and now even include sound!
There are a lot of reasons people are not watching tv as much as they used to. Netflicks and DVR are just two. Usually, it is not some new tech, but the fact that there is just not anything on a person could watch and my wife will not allow me to watch an episode of MythBusters more than three times!

[N. Theknow]

Which is why I won't own a TIVO (or any other DVR device which has a data return link to "set the channels").

Which is why I get a message:

Subject: Please make a successful daily call
From: DirecTV
Date: July 27, 2006

The recorder has not made a successful daily call in 265 days. Please check to make sure that your phone line is connected and the proper settings have been programmed into the recorder.

[YankeeGirl]

Since TiVo I definitely watch MUCH less tv. I make sure the shows I want are recorded and I watch them when it's convenient. Kids too, watch less live tv and mostly what they have recorded.

If I have an hour free I catch that Deadwood or Soprano's episode. If I have 47 minutes free I catch up on that recorded "hour" Rescue Me or CSI or Law & Order without commercials. I definitely don't troll around live TV anymore.

In the winter I will sometimes set (classic or new) movies to record in the middle of the night just to have things to watch when I am bored.

Other than Yankee baseball and Rescue Me, there is really nothing new on in the summer anyway.

TiVo is truly one of the best inventions. I can't imagine TV without it anymore.