Do You Watch Television Commercials?

Tivo’s and other DVR’s (digital video recorder) are becoming increasingly
popular and this is a trend that the advertising industry is starting to take
note of. Do you have a Tivo, and if so, do you still watch commercials?

Nielsen Media
Research are the best known analysts of the television industry. They
measure the ratings of individual television shows which in turn helps
determine the cost of advertising — but no-one has been measuring whether
viewers actually watch the commercials. So, partly due to the increase in online media
consumption, but largely due to the rise of digital video recorders,
Nielsen Media Research was scheduled to begin measuring the
number of viewers that actually watch commercials beginning December 11th.
However, due to some disagreement with their clients, they’ve postponed
publishing this metric.

While the fact
that Nielsen has "put off indefinitely its first-ever ratings system
for commercials" is  old news for media industry insiders, I thought
it interesting in contrast to the rigor with which online advertising is
measured. A spokesman for Nielsen Media Research, Gary Holmes, was quoted as
saying, "The clients in general agree that the rating of commercial
minutes is something that is coming and needs to come but the form that it
needs to take is something that has not been agreed upon." To me, this
sounds as though television executives don’t like the early results from this
new metric — and that they probably confirm what we already know as viewers —
just because a TV show is watched by 5 million people does not mean that they
saw the commercials.

With the rise of online advertising, advertisers have a viable, measurable
alternative to traditional media channels. Advertising spend is continuing to
move online, and the announcement
that Nielsen won’t start to measure the number of viewers that watch
commercials (at least not yet) indicates that television execs are possibly
trying to avoid throwing fuel on that fire. Stay tuned for updates on this
issue.