• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, February 4, 2004

BOOB TUBE -- The Riff is as avid a lookout for tipping points as the next gal (or guy, for that matter), but we don't necessarily subscribe to the theory that Janet Jackson's breast will necessarily be the thing that finally gives the American public reason to run out and get a TiVo. But it sure is giving digital video recorders a lot of attention. We love the anecdotes of frustrated viewers who either didn't have a DVR or weren't running a videotape and therefore could not pause or replay the Super Bowl halftime stunt. "Huh, what was that? A ring or a pasty?" In a situation like that online mpeg downloads just won't do. It's all about instant gratification and control over media. And that is precisely what DVRs are all about.

The problem is that DVR marketers haven't done an especially good job of explaining that. Why else are DVRs mired in the single digits (3 percent, according to Nielsen) of U.S. household penetration, while other new-fangled technologies like DVD players and all sorts of wireless gadgets are racing them by them? This is especially puzzling considering that 70 percent of U.S. adults claim to know what DVRs are, how they work and what they can do for them, according to new research from IPSOS-Insight. "So why haven't more consumers hopped on the DVR bandwagon," asks the statmasters at eMarketer in their daily newsletter today? This obviously got the Riff's attention, because it's the same question that's been puzzling us ever since we got our first DVR (Microsoft's nifty, but abandoned Ultimate TV system) several years ago, and again when we opted for DirecTV's TiVo package last year. Unfortunately, eMarketer doesn't actually answer the question, but it suggests that at least some of the blame has shifted from DVR marketers like TiVo to cable operators, who apparently are so flush with their core businesses of cable TV service, telephony and broadband, that they're not exactly bending over backwards to push out their new PVR features. That should all change, predict the market researchers by around 2006, when PVR penetration reaches 15.3 million households (up from a projected 10.4 million by the end of 2005.). Even then, PVRs will still only be in 13.3 percent of households.

40 YEARS AGO NEXT MONDAY -- The Beatles made their first of three appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and made Nielsen ratings history in the process. Since then, Nielsen history has passed them by. While The Beatles' performances on the show still rank among the top 100 telecasts of all time, the Feb. 9, 1964 start of the British invasion ranks only 24th on Nielsen's list, behind the final episode of "Cheers" (May 20, 1993) and just ahead of NBC's coverage of Super Bowl XXVII (Jan. 31, 1993).

In fact, CBS' telecast of the "M*A*S*H" finale ranks No. 1, by a margin of 14.9 1983 household rating points over The Beatle's 45.3 Nielsen ratings debut. The margin is even greater in terms of actual TV household delivered: 50.15 million for "M*A*S*H" vs. 23.24 million for The Beatles' U.S. TV debut. But a new research study seeks to correct that historical distortion by crunching a variety of databases - Nielsen's the U.S. Census Bureau and data from the broadcast networks - in an effort to make an historical apples-to-apples comparison that adjusts for population and TV penetration trends. The conclusion: When it comes to TV ratings records, The Beatles still rock, but not nearly enough to displace "M*A*S*H." The study, commissioned by the non-profit Fab-40 Committee, found that The Beatles debut was viewed by 40.5 percent of the nation, compared with 46.9 percent for "M*A*S*H." But that still puts the Fab 4 in the No. 2 slot, ahead of every Super Bowl and the legendary "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas."