Just How Much Do PVRs Affect Commercial Watching
from the not-as-much-as-you-might-think dept
A new study has shown that the effect of using a personal video recorder (PVR) like a TiVo while watching TV isn’t as big a deal as the television companies would like you to think. In fact, the study showed that about the same percentage of people actually watch the commercials when watching either live TV or using a PVR. Of course, this was based on a survey (not actual usage patterns), so there may be some bias in the answers. The more interesting finding is that PVR users say they still want to see creative commercials that are relevant to them, and will watch them even if they have a PVR. I can see that making sense with a TiVo where you’re fast forwarding through the commercials, but with a ReplayTV that automatically zaps out commercials, that becomes more difficult.
