TiVo Effect May Not Exist

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/TiVo/Industry_Trends/Advertising/Tivo,_DVRs_Dont_Hurt_Advertisements/4666' target='_blank'>http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s...rtisements/4666</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The study shows that 95 percent of people still watch television live, though that number seems far too high. It also showed that people would skip commercials without the TiVo, by either changing the channel or doing something else around the house. Mela and his team set out to quantify the effect of DVRs, but were surprised when they came up with nothing. "We tried a vast array of methodological approaches to find a DVR effect," says Mela. "We just couldn&rsquo;t."</em></p><p><em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1273527528.usr10.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></em></p><p>I'd always suspected the real effect was minimal if it even existed. &nbsp;I thought it was&nbsp;presumptuous&nbsp;to assume that if you didn't skip the commercial, that you were watching it. &nbsp;I usually don't skip commercials, simply because it is a good time to step out of the room. &nbsp;How about you?</p>

[Reid Kistler]

Am willing to buy the idea that "95 percent of people still watch television live" - as long as it comes with the stipulation that they do NOT watch television live ALL of the time!

We watch "live tv" almost every night there is a hockey game on (even now that the Wings are out... :( .... - Go Habs! ;) ) - but in the course of a normal week almost every regular tv show we watch - which is usually 3 or 4 - is from our DVR: and as old as WE are, my PARENTS watch an appreciable amount of Recorded TV, and our kids seemingly watch Nothing But recorded tv - although, again, with the exception of Live Sports events.

And, among our group of friends / acquaintances, it appears that we make much less use of our DVR than the typical household does.

So, while I would readily believe that 95% of the population "watches live television," by no stretch of the imagination do I believe that they ONLY watch Live Television....

OH: and as to the commercial effect, we have stopped paying attention to tv ads for such a long time that it doesn't matter whether the shows are live or not: as already suggested, we either skip past the ads, switch channels, leave the room, or simply mute the sound....

Of course, this is not what the networks or advertisers want to hear.... Wonder who commissioned the study??? :rolleyes: