Maybe DVRs And Advertisers Can Coexist After All

Filed in archive on June 29, 2005

We've heard a lot of reports lately that Digital Video Recorders were hurting advertisors. Media Post has an interesting report that says DVRs may actually help advertisers:

EVIDENCE IS MOUNTING THAT DIGITAL video recorders aren't necessarily the negative for TV advertising that many people have believed them to be. While research increasingly shows that a high percentage of DVR users do skip through commercials, new information suggests there is a DVR advertising upside--including the fact that people actually use the devices to replay interesting commercials, and they appear to be restoring the kind of family viewing that marketers and agencies relish.

That second point was revealed via new research from ESPN, which showed that 85 percent of DVR households own only one, and 68 percent of viewing in those households is done on the TV set connected to the DVR. The implication, he said, is that DVRs are leading to more family viewing within those households.

It's an interesting view that I doubt many advertisers will be willing to embrace.

Read Researchers Find An Advertising Upside To DVRs