Comments on: Up to 84% of commercial time is unwatched by TiVo users

By: anthony

anthony — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:57:29 +0000

Why exactly is product placement not a good thing. Reduce the number of commercials and have the actors use real products we use in their “lives”.

By: Gwen Lebec

Gwen Lebec — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:39:10 +0000

The ad industry needs to rethink itself. Idconfig is right – charging cable fees and making me watch ads is too much. Also too much is how many there are, how much time they consume and how often I see the same one 2-3 times in an hour. Do one good one! When I am fast forwarding I will stop and reverse to watch a commercial that looks interesting (like the Apple-PC ads) unless it is one I have seen a zillion times. Fewer ads, better quality, take up less of my time and I won’t work so hard to avoid you. Although there is a point about fast forwarding – I do have to stay put. Before I just walked out of the room and did something else for 5 to 10 minutes during the ad breaks. But Nielsen nor TiVo could measure that. So I am be seeing more ads than before. I am getting less done.

By: ldconfig

ldconfig — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:22:46 +0000

Cable bill or commercials NOT BOTH!
Charging for TV thats already paid for with ads is wrong.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:16:11 +0000

Yes, okay. That does make sense. That’s really interesting.

By: smgpugfaw

smgpugfaw — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:32:20 +0000

So who will be the first to do a show with no breaks and have advetising run over programming in the bottom third? (it’s already done to promote other shows, why not third party paid ads?)

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:11:08 +0000

Mikey, no, I don’t think it’s capturing viewers who watched any part of a show.

I’ll try again:

Let’s say a show’s duration minus commercials is 42 minutes. Let’s say between fast forwarding through commercials and credits you watch 40 minutes. Under the program rating you would count as .66 of a viewer (40 out of 60 minutes). Under the pure program rating you’d count as .95 of a viewer (40 out of 42 minutes).

By: Rich

Rich — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:05:32 +0000

Live sporting events are the ONLY thing I don’t TiVo. EVERY other program I’m interested in I TiVo for no other reason than to skip through the commercials.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:51:22 +0000

So the pure program rating captures every viewer who watched any part of a show?

If so, that seems really unfair. Of course that’s going to appear to inflate the number of people who skip commercials.

Doesn’t it make more sense to divide the commercial rating by the traditional program rating? But then again we can already do that with standard Nielsen ratings so I guess that wouldn’t give Tivo anything new to say.

By: jay

jay — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:40:35 +0000

I have said this again and again until i’m blue in the face – at bars, with friends, family, to anybody, anywhere, at any time: Ads are the number one reason network tv has become unwatchable. Can I prove it with a computer algorithm?( I can’t even spell it.) Can I quantify it, monetize it, CAT scan or MRI it? No. What happened to plain old common sense in the business world? (I’ll never forget, though, the guy who posted here telling us TIVO causes people to watch MORE commercials. If I managed a sales team, I’d want to hire that guy.) But I don’t. … The Nielsens measured the first twenty minutes of viewing time only, before they doubled ad time per hour. I’m not privy to much inside info but I can use fifth grade logic: One reason the Nielsen numbers are low for dramas MAY be because nobody watches the entire forty-five or whatever of those ad-chopped, close-up heavy, scene-cluttered, sometimes even serialized hour dramas. Anyway, be relentless on this fact, as Mr. Hughes said precisely: Annoying, obnoxious, humorless, vapid, puerile … to sum up how @#$% the ads are you would need to loot a thesaurus …

By: craigward

craigward — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:42:04 +0000

Easy. Break the show into ten parts, and put one commercial every couple minutes. Tivoers aren’t going to bother fast forwarding through thirty seconds. Ad supported television is saved.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:07:54 +0000

Nielsen program ratings measure total minutes viewing divided by the reported duration of the show, including commercials. If I watched a one hour program and fast-forwarded through 17.5 minutes of commercials, network and local affiliate promos, I’d be counted as ~.7 of a viewer.

My understanding is the TiVo regular program rating works similarly, but in the pure program rating I’d count as a whole viewer.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:40:56 +0000

I still don’t understand what the pure program rating is. What’s the difference between a pure program rating and a program rating?

By: William Hughes

William Hughes — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:07:42 +0000

Isn’t this a Surprise? If they want to get people to watch the Commercials STOP MAKING THEM SO OBNOXIOUS AND/OR OFFENSIVE! Why in the name of Heaven do Advertisers believe that being Obnoxious is the way to boost your product’s sales. Also REDUCE the number of Commercials being shown. In the 1960s less than 10 minutes of each hour was set aside for commercials, nowadays over 20 minutes of the hour is for commercials! Not making enough money? Use the Law of Supply and demand. REDUCE the Supply, and RAISE the Advertising Cost!

By: romo

romo — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:14:38 +0000

Only 84% on that episode….still seems low.