Is It A Good Thing That 90210, Gossip Girl & Dollhouse Get 40+% of Demo Viewing By DVR?

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(103) Comments - Add Yours!

1. Gavin

   Posted April 20, 2009 at 10:09 PM

   TV networks need to wake up to a few facts.
   People are not always going to be home on the night to watch TV shows at the time of airing (will this change ? probably not) so cancelling a lot of good shows just because people aren’t there to watch them live is just plain stupid , some people have to allocate time in their lives to watch TV shows , either bacause they work long hours or have other commitments.
   So DVR viewing still shows people’s interest in shows whether they watch it when it airs or later , there’s not a lot that can be done about advertising loses due to these factors , perhaps the best option under these circumstances is to find other ways to make revenue to balance out the loss ? I mean lets face it , if people have other commitments they can’t just put their lives on hold to watch TV live , that’s just being unrealistic.
   Hope this comment might wake up some people’s ideas and start saving some really good shows rather than being cancelled for circumstances that just can’t be changed , and hopefully networks will start looking at ways to balance out revenue in other ways.

2. the128boy

   Posted April 20, 2009 at 10:20 PM

   By my count 7 of the top 20 18-49 dvr increased shows are either toast or on the bubble. Very interesting.

3. miranda

   Posted April 20, 2009 at 10:42 PM

   At least overall 18-49 didn’t suffer a drop for DH this week.

   I think knowing the actual itunes or Hulu numbers would be good, because they are more likely to make money than DVR. But unless those numbers are 10-20x the normal of 20k, it’s unlikely to make a difference

4. Nick C

   Posted April 20, 2009 at 10:57 PM

   I’d say that Friday scripted shows seem to be DVRed a lot, but the CBS shows aren’t on the lists ever.

5. Robert Seidman

   Posted April 20, 2009 at 11:37 PM

   Nick, in weeks where both Dollhouse and Ghost Whisperer are not repeats, Ghost Whisperer has more total DVR viewing (1.882M to 1.524M for the week of March 9-15, for example). You don’t see it on the list for DVR viewing but if % increase lists weren’t produced, you wouldn’t see any of the FOX shows on Friday either.

   to the128′s point, if you throw in the CW shows (and they aren’t on the bubble or toast) the % increase list is mostly (though not exclusively) a list of shows with low overall viewing that have disproportionately high DVR viewing. but still, low overall viewing.

   It seems much better to be CBS and not have very many of your shows show up on the % increase lists.

6. hagi

   Posted April 20, 2009 at 11:49 PM

   thanks for data..

7. Drone391

   Posted April 21, 2009 at 12:10 AM

   Why did ABC cancel Boston Legal, any scoop or opinion on that, were its numbers too low?

8. Dave

   Posted April 21, 2009 at 12:19 AM

   How many people who watch shows live actually even watch the commercials? Everyone I know just mutes the TV or swaps the channel during ads. Yet these people are considered to be “watching” the ads, while the DVR community is not, it’s very confusing.

9. Jesse

   Posted April 21, 2009 at 12:26 AM

   *Looks at picture*

   Soooo. Ugly people just don’t exist in the CW universe, do they?

10. Mike

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 12:34 AM

    “*Looks at picture*

    Soooo. Ugly people just don’t exist in the CW universe, do they?”

    Ha, true. Though compared to the Gossip Girl cast, 90210 looks ugly.

11. Robert Seidman

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 12:37 AM

    Dave, I can’t answer your question about how many people watch live. But I can sort of clarify the data.

    Live = the total number of minutes viewing the program (and the programs commercials) divided by the number of minutes in the show. Changing channels would be subtracted from a shows minutes and not included in the show’s numbers. According to Nielsen it treats the DVR viewing the same way — if you fast forward past commercials, those minutes aren’t counted. Since most people forward through commercials most of the time, as a result the total number of people actually watching a program on DVR are higher than what we report. If I fast forward through all the commercials and credits I’d be counted as ~2/3rds of a viewer rather than a full viewer.

    Advertisers use numbers we don’t have access to called C3 ratings. They measure the actual commercial viewing for shows including up to 3 days of DVR viewing.

12. Cruel_Heartless

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 12:41 AM

    At the moment DVRs mean very little. Honestly when you have recorded something, who watches the adverts?

    All this post can be used for is for Dawn to crow about how many inconsequential people watch 90210. You know the people that don’t contribute all that much to CW’s profits and it’s advertisers.

    Whilst it is impressive and shows that these shows are actually watched and people enjoy them it highlights that at the moment they just aren’t as profitable as the shows that do well on tv both viewer wise and demo wise.

13. NN

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 2:09 AM

    As long as network execs still believes that their main business is selling eyeballs in a specific timeslot then yes DVR numbers doesn’t mean much. On the other hand when the business and advertisers comes to grips with the tv anywhere anytime concept and DVR, Hulu and internet numbers gets aggregated into some kind of # of total viewers then maybe. We probably need some years with decreasing network and C3 numbers and increasing DVR and internet viewing for the advertisers to realize that if they want to reach the audience they’re looking for they really have to go where the audience is (as someone smarter than me said ) and look beyond the network C3 numbers, whether the right audience is using DVR, internet or watching on the phone. And where the advertisers go the networks decisionmakers are sure to follow.

14. Christian Seehausen

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 2:15 AM

    Wait, so Robert, if that’s the case, and minutes fast-forwarded are not counted in the rating, why is DVR still considered so much worse than Live viewing? Is it assumed that the NUMBER of people skipping those minutes is vastly disproportionate to the number of people who change the channel, or worse, leave it running while they get up and do something else?

15. stevo999

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 2:15 AM

    I think dvr viewing proves that these shows are popular so the networks can order another season but put it in a different time slot. also if they put product logos in the corner like their network logos then dvr viewing would have advertising potential

16. Laura

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 2:37 AM

    I was reading about all the commercial drama. I understand what you, Robert, are saying about counting the minutes and such… but, advertisers have to know that even if someone is “watching” the commercials that doesn’t really mean they are watching them. If I am actually watching a live show, which I hate doing these days because of commercials, and a commercial comes on, that is my bathroom break or grab something to eat in the kitchen or something to that effect. I agree with everyone else that DVR viewing proves that the show is successful. With so many GREAT shows on these days you have to DVR some of them since they usually come on at the same time.

17. Robert Seidman

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 2:40 AM

    Christian, no real conclusions about the relative value of DVR viewers versus live viewers from a commercial viewing perspective can’t be seen directly from this data.

    This data measures total minutes of program viewing/divided by the shows duration (and if it’s an hour long show, divided by 60). The total program viewing minutes include any viewing of programs and commercials, but do not include changing the channel or fast-fowarding. So, I can’t look at the data above in the absence of other data and make any conclusions about commercial viewing.

    However, triangulated against the limited commercial viewing data and analysis that we have seen it appears that most commercial viewing that happens, happens live. While DVR does improve the commercial viewing some, all the data we’ve seen suggested that most people forward through commercials most of the time. That’s not the same as saying all people bypass all commercials all the time.

    What we can know for sure from this data is total program viewing increased by 44% for 90210 with DVR viewing. All the data we have seen suggests that while program viewing went up a LOT, commercial viewing definitely does not increase by that amount and is probably more in the neighborhood of 10% or less commercial viewing increases. Unfortunately, the data above doesn’t really say anything about commercial viewing.

18. Mike

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 2:56 AM

    I think what this shows is that new media models need to be embraced. I have several computer media centers set up that record most shows. I do not need to worry about being home or tuned in as I can watch when I want.

    I do not watch advertising either Live or recorded. When I watch TV I do not watch commercials. I usually flip to CNN/Weather or other news channel during the commercials.

    I would watch more TV off the computer but so much content is restricted from viewing in Canada such as Hulu.

    Of course same with the ads on the computer video. The minute an ad comes on I switch to another window and then come back once the commercial is over or many times just forget about even watching the news clip.

    I rarely download content off the internet but would watch it if it can be streamed.

    I also have Linux boxes that I use to bypass the content restriction on viewing recorded TV as I have a 4 tuner machine that records it all but watch the majority of the TV in the Bedroom on another machine.

    I personally feel that what needs to happen is that product placement needs to be integrated into the media as opposed to putting it by itself. The old commercial based Television program is going to have to change to survive.

    Of course I am getting sick and tired of starting to watch a show only to have it canceled. I am considering removing the NBC channels off the TV as they seem to be the worst at this.

    Of the 50 channels on the TV I would say I watch less than 10 of them. We need to go to more of a specific content model in order to succeed. When I pay my monthly bill it should go to support the shows that I watch not all the rest of the crap.

19. Chris the TV Sage

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 3:27 AM

    Mike:

    And when everyone else stops funding the shows you like because they think *they’re* crap, what are you going to do?

20. Dario

    Posted April 21, 2009 at 4:29 AM

    Heroes are doing very well!