TiVo 'Pure' Ratings Show Ads Lose Significant Audience

by Erik Sass , July 30, 2009

Analyzing data for May from its Stop-Watch ratings service, which tracks usage patterns of 250,000 subscribers, TiVo found that TV commercials lost as much as 84% of their potential audiences during that month.

While the data varies widely depending on factors like the program and time of day, overall, it seems to confirm that people who can skip TV commercials frequently do.

The data is incorporated into TiVo's "Pure Program" ratings, a new research service separating TiVo play data for programs and advertising content. Basically, this means TiVo can compare the number of subscribers who allowed commercials to play -- partially or in their entirety -- by the total number of TiVo subscribers who tuned in to a program, including live and time-shifted viewing.

Explaining the new service, Todd Juenger, TiVo's vice president and general manager for audience research and measurement, cited the May 7 episode of ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," which "had a Pure Program Timeshifted audience of 17.0" -- its total time-shifted audience size. However, "commercials running during the program only received a 2.7 rating. Simply put, 14.3 ratings points worth of audience or 84% of available viewers during time-shifted viewing were lost to fast-forwarding during commercials."

TiVo is marketing the new ratings service to advertisers and media buyers and planners already paranoid about commercial-skipping, cannily playing on their fears with the release of its "Pure Program" ratings for May. Among time-shifted viewers, the April 30 and May 14 episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" got Pure Program ratings of 16.7 and 16.8 -- but commercial ratings of just 3.9 and 3.3, respectively. Similarly, Fox's "American Idol" got pure program ratings of 13.1 on April 28, May 12, and May 20 -- but commercial ratings of just 2.4, 2.6, and 2.7, respectively.

Commercial ratings for live viewing tended to be closer to the total live audience size. For example, the same three episodes of "American Idol" got "Pure Program" ratings of 4.2, 4.1, and 5.0, and commercial ratings of 4.0, 3.0, and 5.0, respectively.

Overall, however, Juenger observed: "There is little correlation between the top-rated programs and top-viewed commercials."

media measurement, television

2 comments about "TiVo 'Pure' Ratings Show Ads Lose Significant Audience ".

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Bob Rose from SMA, August 3, 2009 at 9:55 a.m.
Not sure I understand this...Grey's Anatomy gets a 17 total rating, but just 2.7 rating for its commercials. Can this be possible? Are these ratings analagous to regular TV ratings in that they are a percentage of population viewing?
If so, the end is nearer than even we thought.
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Gerard Broussard from Pre-Meditated Media, LLC, August 4, 2009 at 9:41 a.m.

I think that Todd might want to provide more detail on the full range of programs time shifted, not just select epidsodes of Grey's Anatomy, American Idol; then we'll be able to get some useful insights into typical commercial rating loss due to skipping. These numbers, however, are very eye opening.