At present, personal video recorders (PVRs) are considered a niche product and fears that they could spell the beginning of the end for television advertising (see Insight Analysis: Should Advertisers Fear Digital Video Recorders?) have so far proved unfounded. However, take-up is on the increase (see PVRs To Emerge As A Force, Says Informa Media) and a new study from Forrester Research highlights the level of anxiety about the new technology.
However, all is not doom and gloom and Forrester suggests that the deficit can be made up in other areas. “Ad-skipping won’t destroy the TV business,” said the report’s author, Josh Bernoff. “New ad revenues for commercials in video-on-demand will nearly make up the shortfall, and we also expect consumers to pay $6 billion for new services like subscription video-on-demand in 2007.”
Bernoff also says that advertisers need to link their ads more closely to programmes and reserve 5% of their media budget for non-standard formats such as interactive programme-guide panels, interactive commercials and ads on PVR menus which cannot be be avoided by ad-skippers.