iTV Viewers Ignore Banner Ads

Banner ads on interactive TV are being ignored by viewers, according to a survey carried out by Netpoll.

The “Hands On TV” survey into attitudes towards interactive TV, which was carried out in over 50 households in seven cities across the UK, found that there is an almost total lack of response to banner ads on websites adapted for interactive TV.

The survey found that users are less familiar with the format of ads on interactive TV compared with those on the internet, so adverts which are not overtly obvious or do not have immediate resonance in terms of ‘call to action’ are less likely to be remembered or even noticed at all.

The research also shows that banner ads on TV are harder to spot than banner ads on a computer screen and that interactive viewers concentrate so much on using their interactive handset that they are not easily distracted by adverts.

Users were, however, found to respond more readily to ads involving some form of competition.

Senior strategist at Netpoll, Andy Mayo, said: “The central proposition of interactive TV is entertainment, whereas with the web it is information. Users have already been conditioned not to notice banner ads on the web, so ads comprising of static information displayed in banner form on a TV screen were bound to struggle.”

The survey also found that while users of interactive TV recognised that advertising subsidised their subscription fees they considered it to be “a necessary evil” which distracted them from their “viewing pleasure”.

Netpoll 020 7710 2800 www.netpoll.net

Subscribers can access ten years of media news and analysis in the Archive