Nielsen: DVR Playback Doubles, More Ads Watched

by Wayne Friedman , August 5, 2010

tv watcher

New data from Nielsen says DVR playback has doubled within the year, viewers are watching more commercials during playback, and live program ratings are much less comparable to commercial ratings.

Nielsen says viewers watch between 40% and 50% of commercials during DVR playback. These numbers have climbed from previous estimates, where viewers were watching anywhere between 30% to 40%.

Concerning the trending of live program ratings to commercial ratings (C3, commercial ratings plus three days of DVR playback), Nielsen says: "Live QH (Quarter Hour) program ratings are increasingly less reflective of commercial audience delivery."

Nielsen says the growth of DVR usage has climbed 90% from 2007 to 2009. Now, 90% percent of DVR playback occurs within three days; 42% within the first hour after the initial live broadcast. About 61% of all DVR playback occurs within the same day.

DVR penetration among its national people markets is at 37%, with local people meter markets at 41%. Local people meter markets vary in DVR penetration, with Minneapolis at a low 26.5% compared to Cleveland at 47%, the company notes.

DVR playback ratings in local people meter markets have risen to around an 8.2 household rating, from a 6.9 rating during 8 p.m. to 10 p.m, and to a 7.4 rating from a 6.1 rating from 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Increasingly, Nielsen says, DVR playback comes from younger and higher-income viewers. It also notes that half of the TV stations and cable networks witnessed strong growth in DVR playback during prime time.

Nielsen has long held the point-of-view that live plus same-day of DVR playback is the most representative metric for the local TV business today, even though some big Madison Avenue agencies, and the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers have lobbied that live-only ratings are the most appropriate metric, at least until Nielsen can come up with a method for measuring commercial audience exposure, like it does in national TV ratings.

Nielsen had been at loggerheads with Madison Avenue after phasing out the "live-only" local ratings stream, but recently announced plans to reinstate it this fall, after expanding its capacity to process more ratings streams.

advertising, media measurement, television

6 comments about "Nielsen: DVR Playback Doubles, More Ads Watched".

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Steven Moore from Adams Outdoor Advertising, August 6, 2010 at 9:35 a.m.
"viewers are watching more commercials during playback"!? Are you kidding me? Sounds like Nielsen is licking the hand that feeds it. I challenge anyone reading this to ask everyone they know who has a DVR(AND doesn't work in advertising) about their viewing habits and why they use it. Invariably the top 2 (and intertwined) answers are "viewing on my schedule" and "zapping commercials". Why would anyone spend 3 hours watching a 2 hour movie or an hour watching their favorite 40 minute program?
I guess the TV industry gets what it pays for.
Reply

Richard Tamborrino from The Miami Herald Media Company, August 6, 2010 at 10:01 a.m.

This contention is absolutely ridiculous...the whole concept of recording programming is for 'on-demand' entertainment...You can watch a 1 hour drama is 44 minutes, and it's being done with great regularity...Neilson is a dying research company with archaic methods and are grasping at straws...If this contention were taken as fact, it would be a great injustice to real research...

Marci Lemanski from CARE Media Holdings Corp, August 6, 2010 at 11:55 a.m.

I have to laugh out loud at this. Rarely does anyone in our household watch any TV without first recording it specifically so we can zap the commercials. We plan to join a program 20 to 30 minutes after it has started to record for this reason or watch a show from the previous evening. I do not believe Nielsen is third party independent research company any longer - they are now the "in house" research department of the broadcast and cable networks.

Carl Strandell from CVS, August 6, 2010 at 4:24 p.m.

Like a lot of people I tend to tune into the DVR about 10 minutes after the “live” show has started. Zipping through commercial sets is an automatic. . . usually at “60” speed, which takes about :20 to blow past a long commercial set (“300” speed is too hard to maneuver).

During football games, I wait about an hour before tuning into the DVR. For whatever reason, after the play is over, I press the 8-second automatic forward sequence and, generally wind up with the players at the line of scrimmage. . . .not sure how (or why) that happens since it normally takes more than 8 seconds from the end of the play to the next snap of the ball.

Howie Goldfarb from Blue Star Strategic Marketing, August 9, 2010 at 11:25 a.m.

I always suspect the numbers. Nielsen needs higher commercial viewing numbers and so does the channels and programs they measure. It equals more money. Notice its the brands who are not part of the ratings discussion in my opinion. How do we know because of the threat to Nielsen of the new Media Consortium to have a competitor to them. that they aren't feeling pressure to have better commercial ratings? Going to my first point I don't think brands are part of that effort. So I don't trust their numbers. Never have. But its all we have had to go on.

Fraser E from Opinions expressed herein are solely my own, August 13, 2010 at 6:08 p.m.

Ah yes, once again Mother-In-Law research trumps actual research and the quantified fact that DVR users show surprising ad recall. Impossible! *I* skip ads, so the notion is preposterous!

I must say, I did find great humor in a representative of the Miami Herald company throwing stones about Nielsen being a dying company with archaic methods grasping at straws. Comedy gold!