[opendtv] Re: TV Rules, New Nielsen Study Shows

Two observations:
1. As with all demographic groups, there is a significant amount of "viewing time" when the TV is turned on as "background noise. Nielsen has NO meaningful way to measure this, OTHER THAN separate studies that measure ad recognition and retention.
2. The younger demographics are the most adept at commercial avoidance. As an example, my daughter and her boyfriend routinely record shows to their DVR so that they can skip the commercials. Ironically, it is more difficult to avoid commercials when viewing programs via the Internet, but mercifully, there are less commercials.
At a personal level, I decided to watch "24" this season, but I also made the decision to use the DVR to keep from having to make an "appointment" to watch it. The format of "24," with its time of day clock that appears going into and out of commercial breaks, makes it even more obvious just how absurd the commercial loads have become with prime time network programming - there are two breaks in each episode with local ads that run at least four minutes.
This re-enforces one of the top reasons I don't watch much network TV; the other main reason is the poor (content) quality of most network shows. 

While studies like this are interesting, one must ask a simple question:
Why is there such a huge effort to produce studies that tell us that TV watching is at an all time high? Could it be that advertisers are recognizing that TV advertising is not producing results that justify the cost?
I'm sure I could produce a study that tells us that we are exposed to "all time high levels" of ads in virtually every facet of our lives - outdoor, direct mail, Internet, movie theaters, radio... 

Look up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane...

No it's just another ad.

Regards
Craig




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