New Media Myth #1 - PVRs Are Killing TV Ads

12% of Canadian households have a PVR according to BBM (and PMB says 7% which would be about right for when the info was collected).  I think the growth of 40% from the previous year fuels the myth the most but it’s like the first raise I received when I worked at Ogilvy – 40% of zero is still zero

PVRs are on the typical tech adoption curve which means it will take years before the majority of Canadians have them.  Other technology will become available before that ever happens which is when providers will finally throw it in for free.  That’s also when we’ll have other media issues to worry about.  In the meantime, there are people out there who will never add another $20 to their monthly TV bill – or who just don’t care enough if they miss an episode of something critical like The Hills

And then if you have one, you still have to turn it on.  27% of the population record TV shows for later viewing with either a PVR, VCR, or DVD recorder and 55% of those are only recording 1-2 hours per week.  PVR owners watch over 20 hours per week on average so they’re not recording most of it

So you’ve successfully PVRed your show, but you haven’t made the commercials disappear.  Only 66% of PVR owners ever fast forward through the commercials.  Only 32% of those who record TV on any type of device ever fast forward through the commercials.  I’m not saying these people like commercials but they just don’t skip through them.  I used to own a VCR that automatically marked and skipped commercials, but now I forget I’m watching a PVRed show half the time 

As with any myth, PVRs killing TV is all exaggeration.  There are other issues with TV that need to be considered like more commercial time, continuous shift in viewing to specialty networks, impact of other media.  But those are things that all media are dealing with.  You’ll still be hard pressed to match the results that TV can deliver and PVRs are not going to change that anytime soon