DVRs Help Some TV Shows Improve Ratings 297
ubermiester writes "After years of panicked lawsuits by content providers against TiVo and DVR technology in general, the NYTimes is reporting on yet another lesson for the content providers to learn and then immediately forget: 'Against almost every expectation, nearly half of all people watching delayed shows are still slouching on their couches watching messages about movies, cars, and beer. According to Nielsen, 46 percent of viewers 18 to 49 years old for all four networks taken together are watching the commercials during playback, up slightly from last year.' The article also notes viewership increases 'in the range of 7 to 12 percent, with some shows having increases of more than 20 percent when DVR ratings are added. The four networks together are averaging a 10 percent increase."
but are they really? (Score:3, Informative)
What are the odds that most people use the time during commercials to go get themselves a drink or something and aren't actually watching them? Sure with a DVR you could skip over them but it could very well be just a habit not to do so.
Re:watching commercials (Score:5, Informative)
Try the "pause" button, you can stop for a break whenever you want to.
Re:Define "humor" (Score:3, Informative)
Re:That's because they need MythTV (Score:3, Informative)
MythTv is great but linux GPU drivers for ATI/Intel/Nvidia suck.
You're absolutely right. I'd go so far as to say their entire frontend is coated with a thin layer of suck. Some of it is Linux related, some not.
That said, the backend is a wonderful thing. I just wish Boxee and/or XBMC would utilize all the features the backend offers.
Re:That's because they need MythTV (Score:3, Informative)
Nielsen tracks the data the same way they've always tracked it - 4000 homes are selected in 210 different cities/towns, and their viewing habits tracked. The only difference is instead of saying the television was "tuned to NBC" or "tuned to FOX", it will say "tuned to DVR" and which program was being watched.
Re:That's because they need MythTV (Score:3, Informative)
I could have explained how it works, sorry about that!
1) Myth records the show
2) It flags the commercials by scripted job
3) Hot keys (and/or the automatic setting) jump between flagged sections.
Unless something went wrong in step 2, there is zero frustration. Often times the show fades out and right back in without interruption at all.
The cost for this is the time to do the flagging. I have to watch today's shows tomorrow if I want it to work. That isn't much of a problem for me, but it might not work for everyone.
Re:That's because they need MythTV (Score:3, Informative)
He's talking about cable.
Cable for the most part in the US is 100% encrypted. You might luck out and
have a local landline monopoly that doesn't encrypt all of their interesting
channels. For the most part, you are going to need an HD-PVR (1212) from
Hauppauge if you want to record something like Sci-Fi, History, Discovery or
HBO.
On the one hand, it's $200 for each recorder.
On the other hand, it compresses everything to h264 which is very useful.
On the 3rd hand, you end up with 720p/1080i h264 recordings that are "tricky" to play back.
On the 4th hand, you can get a $200 nettop that will play them back fine.
MythTV and one of MCE's Win32 competitors support the Hauppauge 1212.
The USB component tuner doesn't make MythTV any more difficult to deal with.
The same basic "analog PVR problem still remains". You still have to control
the cable box. That is something that you would have to deal with if you were
using an old school analog tuner or an S2 Tivo.
TV ratings technologies (Score:3, Informative)
TV ratings are collected in two different ways. Some people, like you, fill in diaries to report their viewing, but Nielsen also maintains panels of homes with meters attached to all the video devices in the household. These meters report viewing pretty much on a minute-by-minute (or maybe these days second-by-second) basis. There's a national meter panel, and metered panels in the largest markets as well. National networks (both broadcast and cable) and national advertisers depend on these data from metered households. The diary method is used to measure viewing in local markets during "sweeps" periods (February, May, July, November). Smaller markets don't have the revenues to justify full-time metering and use the cheaper, and obviously somewhat more inaccurate, diary method instead.