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CBS's Poltrack: If Only People Would Stop Using DVRs

Within 5 years, more sophisticated measurements will prove that the audience for CBS program content is growing across all platforms, the long-time CBS Reseach guru, tells television critics. But that DVR viewing is murder when the program is not watched until a week or more later. 

Read the whole story at Deadline.com »

5 comments about "CBS's Poltrack: If Only People Would Stop Using DVRs".
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  1. Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, August 11, 2015 at 1:57 p.m.

    At some point, CBS may have to abandon the linear TV model. I think the DVR has demonstrated pretty well that most people hate ads (and I doubt they are using their second-screens to query marketing messages).

  2. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, August 11, 2015 at 4:08 p.m.

    Douglas, while there is no doubt that some people hate TV commercials, others regard many of them as informative or entertaining and watch them. Still others fall somewhere in between these extremes, being fairly slelctive about what ads they pay attention to but certainly not avoiding them all. As I've pointed out repeatedly, thousands of commercial recall studies are done each year and these show that the average TV commercial is remembered by 30-45% of the "audience", depending on the methodology and including some form of reminder or memory aid. If everyone hated commercials and avoided them, as you seem to be saying, such findings would be impossible.

    One final comment, if the "linear TV" folks abandoned their current mostly ad supported business model for a subscription model using digital platforms, there would be a huge decline in the amount of advertising the average consumer is exposed to----which you and others probably feel is a good thing. But what would be the effect on our economy? Doesn't advertising help inform consumers about products and sell them? Is all advertising bad or worthless?

    As things develop, I forsee a slow decline in the amount of commercial TV GRPs available to advertisers, as the ad-free SVOD services will continue to grow---but only to a point. Then they will level off in terms of penetration and we will have something like a 65%-35% split in TV viewing, with comercial TV being the larger one----maybe not for the affluent elite, but across all population segments. That should be enough to satisfy both those who hate ads as well as those who need to advertise to support their brands and win business.

  3. Nicholas Schiavone from Nicholas P. Schiavone, LLC, August 12, 2015 at 1:38 a.m.

    Douglas,
    Are you associated a real academic institution?
    Your comments rival Donald Trump's for lack of sense and sensibility, content and comprehension.
    Regardless,
    Nick

  4. Chuck Hildebrandt from Self, August 12, 2015 at 8:52 a.m.

    Did Poltrack actually say the words in the headline, or anyting resembling the petulance and denial of progress the headline suggests he did? Because nothing in the story indicates that, and if he didn't, the editorial staff of this website is derelict in framing him as such.

  5. Nicholas Schiavone from Nicholas P. Schiavone, LLC, August 12, 2015 at 12:35 p.m.

    Agreed, Chuck!

    The headline either reflects poor understanding
    or takes MediaPost readers for a bunch of ill-informed dolts.

    The best parts of this fiasco are your smart critique and Ed Papazian's wise perspective.

    Thank you.

    Enjoy the day.

    Regards,
    Nick


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