Ad-Break Viewing To Be Measured For The First Time

The number of people who watch television commercials will be measured for the first time in the US, using a panel of 10,000 households with special set-top recording devices.

From November, market research company AC Nielsen will measure the number of people who watch advert breaks, effectively leading to the end of guesswork for media buyers and sellers.

The devices will exclude viewers who use digital recorders and skip through adverts when they play recordings back. Participants will also register when they leave their seats for any reason.

About 12% of Americans own digital video recorders such as TiVo, which allow viewers to pause live shows and skip through commercial breaks, and the proportion is expected to rise to 20% by the end of the year. A dispute has been raging over the value of these users to advertisers.

AC Nielsen’s ratings are the generally accepted yardstick used to set the price of advertising slots in the States and some experts have suggested that broadcasters’ income could drop as a result of the new figures that will be released.

If the data shows a substantial fall in people actually watching commercials, this will trigger some tough negotiations. How ads are incorporated into shows will become a debating point, likely leading to demands for fewer or shorter commercial breaks.

Nielsen will measure average viewing numbers for all the national commercial minutes that run during a programme. However, individual commercials or specific commercial time slots won’t be measured, although industry onlookers believe this is merely a matter of time.