My neighbor and I were just talking about this (Tivo Will No Longer Skip Past Advertisers) the other night and what it means for us Tivo users.
By March, TiVo viewers will see “billboards,” or small logos, popping up over TV commercials as they fast-forward through them, offering contest entries, giveaways or links to other ads. If a viewer “opts in” to the ad, their contact information will be downloaded to that advertiser — exclusively and by permission only — so even more direct marketing can take place.
Personally I am a little pissed off that not only did I buy the appliance and pay the $4.99 monthly service fee, but now I am going to be forced to watch advertising that I want to avoid in the first place. As soon as I can find a competitive dual tuner system for my DirecTV I will definitely be exploring my options.
Anyways, fast forward to today (See: Interesting study on fast-forwarding | PVRblog)…
CBS is about to release a study showing that DVR users have better retention of commercial messages than people viewing ads at regular speed. They claim a recall rate of 23% for DVR fast forwarders, but don’t mention what lower rate regular TV folks recall ads at.
It’s kind of weird on the surface, but makes sense for a few reasons. One is that people using FF are concentrating at 100%, waiting to see the show come back so they can stop, while most folks stuck in 30-second ad jail can let their mind wander or take off to the kitchen for other things. Ads also have a tendency to repeat often (repeat often…often…), and I know when I’m watching shows I can spot that same damn weight loss pill ad for serious dieters and that same ad for Chili’s that comes on at each break. I also suspect we’re used to decades of ads displaying images at a certain rate and a certain pace, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a psychologist would say the super quick cuts seen during FF would be more jarring and memorable in the end.
Obviously we will have to wait and see just what Tivo has in mind, but because the Networks aren’t getting a cut from Tivo for the advertisements, and Tivo will in effect be doing what Gator was sued (and lost) for doing it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.