Fast Forwarding Through Commercials to go Mainstream by 2009
According to this article on SmartMoney, a recent study says that 1 in 10 advertisements could be skipped by 2009 because of the growth of the DVR market, including ReplayTV and Tivo.
The study also estimates that around 40% of US homes will have some type of DVR device by the year 2009. Currently around 8% of homes have DVR units and approximately 2% of all commercials are skipped by using the fast forward feature of the DVR.
These numbers will definitely cause advertisers and TV networks to take notice and take preventive measures to stop this from happening. What those preventive measures will be remains to be seen, but right now it looks like it will be a combination of 2 things:
(1) New advertising models, such as the integrated Ford and Coke commercials during American Idol, that will be different enough from current commercials that people won’t fast forward through them — of course, after people get used to them, they will start fast forwarding through even these new commercials.
(2) Commercials will be “flagged” and newer DVR units (especially from Cable Companies) will not let the user fast forward through these “flagged” commercials.
It will definitely be an ongoing battle between advertisers and viewers, but I’m sure that the advertisers will definitely not stand by and just watch this happen.
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Daren said
am June 28 2005 @ 10:34 pm
Enjoy commercial skipping while you can. In due time cable companies will prevent commercial skipping. That will be followed by the independent DVR’s (ReplayTV and Tivo) falling to the pressure. The last will be Home Theatre PC’s but they too will eventually have to comply.