Recent studies by InsightExpress and MediaPost have discovered that US TV viewers are watching 24% more television once they become DVR subscribers, with hours spent viewing rising from 19.2 hours to 23.9 hours per week.
In addition, it seems DVR subscribers are providing a better audience for adverts than non-subscribers, since they merely forward through the adverts during a commercial break rather than actually switching channels. Before becoming DVR subscribers, over 50% of these viewers claimed to change channels during commercial breaks rather than watch the adverts . However, having subscribed to DVRs, a massive 96% say they watch or fast-forward commercials instead.
Despite advertiser worries that greater DVR penetration will lead to fewer opportunities to get their messages across, it seems fast-forwarding is not necessarily a major problem, since InsightExpress discovered that viewers still “always” (15%) or “sometimes” (52%) notice the adverts. Also, some advertising agencies are adapting to viewers actions by creating adverts that can be viewed in compressed form while being fast-forwarded.
In April, Forrester Research reported that the number of DVR households in the US will reach 49.6 million by 2009, up from 3.5 million in 2003, indicating that DVRs are here to stay.
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