The growth of PVRs has caused a stir with TV advertising since they were first launched. First of all advertisers and broadcasters instantly took a dislike to PVRs for their ad skipping features on time shifted content.More recently however, TV Networks have began to realize that people watching time shifted content may still watch adverts, that fast forwarded adverts may still have an effect on viewers, and that in general time shifted viewing is still valuable to the advertiser and should be accounted for.
Now TV Networks are demanding that time shifted PVR viewing be taken into consideration when making advertising deals. This causes a bit of a problem since it is currently very difficult to judge how many people are watching time shifted content, and more importantly how many people watch the ads.
Nielsen Ratings, a company which provides statistical TV ratings has something in the works that will be ready in May to address time shifted content, but until then advertisers and TV networks will find it hard to reach agreements.
1. I've been using a tivo for two years now, and good commercials still get my attention. Several times a month I'll stop fast-forwarding and rewind to watch a commercial I've heard about. Advertisers have their best shot with pvr users during the first commercial in a break. They should use it wisely.
Posted at 11:50AM on Jan 29th 2007 by Brent