TV Advertisers Need Not Worry About TiVo after all

According to a recent article in The Age, time shifting TV shows and skipping ads with your TiVo/DVR is no real threat to advertisers.

The articles cites a study done by research group Arbitron. Apparently the company used "portable people meters" to track the viewing habits of DVR users. I'm a little afraid of the term "portable people meter". Sounds like something out of The Clockwork Orange. Anyhow, according to earlier studies, up to 70% of DVR users said they skipped ads using their DVR. This new study, which actually measured how users watched TV, found that only 7 percent of TV watching in DVR enabled homes was time delayed. So basically 93% of the time the TV was on it was displaying live TV.

I find that hard to believe. I know that in my house the figure has got to be much higher than that. Pretty much the only time I ever watch TV live is when watching sports. And I try not to do that. I think I wasted a good 4 hours of my life today watching the same commercials over and over again. But it all worked out because the Broncos beat the Cowboys.

Tags: tivo, dvr, pvr, advertising