TV advertisers are receiving mixed signals over the issues raised by personal video recorder (PVR) technology. A recent study by Frank N.Magid Associates claims that despite advertisers fears of TV adverts being skipped with the new technology, 55% of PVR users stop to watch adverts that catch their eye.
New research from ESPN confirms this, claiming that the majority of PVR households in the US are relatively new to the technology, with the devices not yet affecting their television viewing behaviour (see
PVRs Not Yet Affecting TV Viewing Behaviour).
Speaking during a recent presentation at the Carat Digital Exchange in New York, Artie Bulgrin, senior vice president research and sales development at ESPN, claimed that research suggests that 30% of PVR users regularly use the ‘trick’ viewing features on the devices, such as replay, slow-motion, and pause when watching the recorded programme.
Bulgrin said that there was anecdotal evidence that PVR owners occasionally replay television commercials they have fast-forwarded through when they’ve captured their attention.
However, according to a new study by consulting firm, Accenture, PVR uptake will result in nearly 10% of all television commercials in the US being skipped by 2009, resulting in advertisers losing $6 billion worth of commercial impacts.
The research claims that nearly 10% of all households in the US will be equipped with technology to skip ads by 2009, up from the current 8% with just 2% of ads being skipped (see US Advertisers To Lose 10% Of Commercial Impacts By 2009).
According to In-Stat, worldwide, households subscribing to a PVR service increased to over 9.2 million in May 2005, from 3.6 million in the same period last year (see DVRs Set To Become Essential Household Items).
Over the next five years PVRs are set to enjoy massive growth, with penetration expected to reach over 11% of television households worldwide, according to a report from Informa Media (see PVRs Causing Increasing Threat To Advertisers).
Advertisers, however, are coming up with ways to crack the PVR problem, with, media group, OMD, announcing that it has plans to test a new form of media advertising that will deliver an advertising message, even when television viewers are fast forwarding through commercials (see Advertisers Fight Back Against PVRs).
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