Early DVR playback data for last week shows large playback increases versus the same week one year ago according to Variety:
Those programs are now all competing with primetime programming stored on DVRs. In other words, Conan O'Brien's competition isn't just David Letterman or "Nightline" -- it's that episode of "The Office" that aired earlier in the evening.
Those hours before and after primetime, as well as on Friday and Saturday nights, have became catch-up time for viewers. According to Poltrack, DVR use was up 46% on Friday in primetime compared to last year -- which further explains why the nets barely registered on the night.
"There's so much on Thursday night that people want to watch, so many programs, that last week a lot of that Thursday-night viewing spilled into Friday," he said.
Poltrack suspects that some of those Friday shows were then recorded by viewers and played back on Saturday.
For Monday through Thursday last week, DVR playback during primetime hours was up around 36%, and up 34% during 11 p.m. newscasts and 27% during latenight.
Buried very deeply in the story is something that was front page news here on TV by the Numbers!
For all The Talk that the networks experienced a strong premiere week, Wakshlag noted that the nets were still down as a whole in week one vs. last year.
I agree! Waaay to much shows to watch on Thursday!
what about the dvr ratings for smallville
What I wouldn’t give for access to the actual Nielsen numbers for, say, 10pm-11:30pm. I continue to think the biggest determiner of Leno’s daily rating is DVR viewing.
I wonder if Tom’s request is possible. That info would in fact be interesting, as well as seeing C+3 ratings one day…
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/09/30/the-jay-leno-show-timeslot-less-dvr-viewed-by-tivo-users/29059
Tom -this may be in interest
That article just says how much Leno is DVR’d, Tom was wondering what people were actually watching during 10pm (ie Leno or some other show they previously DVR’d) and if Leno’s ratings are inversely related to the amount of DVR viewing at 10pm.
Perhaps people aren’t going out as much on Fridays and Saturdays as we assume. They’re just watching more recorded tv shows on those two nights. That would make sense considering this economy when so many have started to save any money they can. It would be cheaper to just stay at home and catch up on shows they’ve missed.
Which then would explain what Nick C said last season about the index not truly showing the real viewership on Fridays or Saturdays. Since people are watching tv shows but without…the tv. Cool.