Ernest Miller pursues research and writing on cyberlaw, intellectual property, and First Amendment issues. Mr. Miller attended the U.S. Naval Academy before attending Yale Law School, where he was president and co-founder of the Law and Technology Society, and founded the technology law and policy news site LawMeme. He is a fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.
Ernest Miller's blog postings can also be found @Listen to the weekly audio edition on IT Conversations:
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Feel free to contact me about articles, websites and etc. you think I may find of interest. I'm also available for consulting work and speaking engagements. Email: ernest.miller 8T gmail.com
Balkinization
Fascinating study on TiVo use by consumers from Forrester Research (Forrester Research Conducts In-Depth Survey of DVR Users to Uncover Key Trends Impacting the Television and Advertising Industries). Some of the key findings are quite interesting:
DVRs have a significant impact on consumers' TV viewing habits.So, some types of commercials are popular, others are not. How about that? I guess car dealers are going to have to get more creative.-- While real-time viewing drops by 60 percent for consumers who use DVRs, programs like the evening news and sporting events are among the programs that retain significant real-time viewing.
-- Forrester's survey respondents report watching only 8 percent of commercials in recorded programming. Three out of 10 viewers say they watch no commercials at all.
-- Although the numbers paint a gloomy picture for advertisers, viewers do not treat all ads equally. Three out of four DVR users watch some ads at least occasionally. Movie ads and promos for upcoming programming fare best. Conversely, consumers watch less than one in 10 ads about credit cards, long-distance carriers, car dealers, and banks.
Other findings include the fact that delayed viewing for time-sensitive programming (such as sports and news) doesn't drop nearly as much as other programming. Well, duh. Still, sometimes the obvious needs to be stated.
I vaguely remember, though I can't find it again, seeing a study comparing people fast-forwarding through commercials versus others who had to watch them at normal speed in a laboratory setting. What the study found was that both groups actually retained the same amount of information about the commercials.
If my memory on this is correct and if the study results apply in the real world, then TiVo-like fast-forwarding is actually a boon to advertisers. It gets all of the message across without annoying the viewer as much.
Forrester just polled TiVo users. Such polls are inherently unreliable for evaluating viewing habits.
TiVo can provide this kind of information with authority. They know exactly how many of their subscribers watch real time vs delayed TV and how many commercials are skipped. The boxes constantly monitor this information and ship it back to TiVo.
Compare the respondents' report that they watch only 8% of commercials in recorded programming with this data from TiVo last year, widely available on the web: 'For example, 75 percent of TiVo users who watched the Grammy Awards continued watching through the commercials aired during the broadcast, while only 39 percent watched commercials during the comedy "Friends," according to TiVo.'
Tivo's (and apparently Forrester's) numbers fail to account for at least a small percentage of DVR users: those of us who use a non-Tivo/Replay based DVR that doesn't upload usage statistics to the mother ship on a regular basis.
I bought a Panasonic DVR because I wanted a stand-alone appliance, not one which requires the ongoing expense of subscribing to a program guide service. Granted, this means that I have to forgo certain convenience features like one-click programming, but the trade off was worth it to me in terms of both expense and privacy.
I don't know how Tivo's fast-forward function works, but on my DVR I can skip past one minute of recorded content at the click of a button. Three to five clicks and perhaps a few seconds of rewind get me past commercial clusters in under ten seconds. Commercials are history in our house.
I wonder what percentage of the installed base non-Tivo/Replay DVRs like mine account for. As the prices drop and the number of available products proliferates, that percentage will undoubtedly increase.
I use a Dish satellite DVR with 100 hours of record time.
The DVR is fantastic, if only the network was as good. My wife and I are more selective and less likely to get "catch-up" watching the end of a live telecast. We find ourselves more willing to stop and discard programs that have lost our interest since we have a selection of programs recorded.
Two complaints: 1) The DVR will only allow playback of a already recorded program or the actual program being actively recorded. In other words, you can't watch a live show and record at the same time. You can only record one show at a time. and 2) Recording is based on time and channel. If the programming is changed between the time recording is set up and actually initiates, you end up with unwanted program recordings.
All in all, I enjoy the freedom and control that the DVR gives me.
After loosing the satellite dish alignment during Hurricane Francis, I've decided to investigate a cable feed with a TiVo or Brighthouse or some other recorder. Any suggestions?
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