• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, October 1, 2009

We are not in a new fall TV season; we are in the new time-shifting season.

Time-shifting is now some 40% higher in prime time for the first week of the new season.  This is good news for TV networks needing to get their shows sampled. As a result, broadcast erosion in the first days of the new season isn't as high as in the past. 

What this means for advertisers -- this year -- is not yet determined.  In the recent past, increased time-shifting meant more TV viewing, and, in general, more of a chance to watch a commercial or two. This is especially true for those of us asleep at the wheel... er, remote.

DVR ownership is climbing -- but not as fast as one would think. By some estimates, DVRs are in around 30% of all U.S. TV homes. There is strong belief that new TV video sites like Hulu, as well as new Internet-enabled TVs, will slow down the growth of traditional add-on DVR units to TV sets.

In the meantime, what TV networks marketers can't do, consumers are doing for themselves.  CBS' David Poltrack says viewers are just working better, more efficiently, in using DVRs.

For example, my wife says she is more sensitive to "maintenance" issues: managing/deleting for our allotted disk space (an older DVR unit); making the tough decisions on certain TV shows (later, CBS' "Accidentally on Purpose"! Hello, TNT's "Raising the Bar"); as well as planning for those barren programming periods -- late summer, and in December, after the November sweep, for example, when it's hard to get new stuff to watch.

In the broadest terms, all this means good news for the traditional prime-time  period. More recording and viewing of TV shows has "expanded" the definition of prime-time viewing hours.  That means more playback of programs later in the evening after 11 p.m., as well as on Friday and Saturday nights, traditionally times when there's less viewing going on.

The fall TV season is now an anytime, anywhere season -- and apparently it's growing.