TV viewers claim to spend a slight majority (53%) of their viewing time with time-shifted rather than live (47%) content, according to a recent report from Hub Entertainment Research.
While that runs counter to Nielsen figures, which find live TV to be the predominant form of consumption, there’s no doubt that time-shifted viewing is on the rise, an unsurprising trend given that three in four TV households now have access to at least one on-demand service.
So what does this mean for ad avoidance?
The Hub Entertainment Research survey – which was conducted among 1,210 TV viewers aged 16-74 who watch at least five hours of TV per week and who have broadband access at home – finds that ad avoidance is a factor in time-shifting, but not the main one.
When asked the biggest benefits of watching episodes of a current show at a later time, a leading 60% of respondents cited the convenience of watching on their own time. By comparison, the benefit of skipping ads was cited by significantly fewer (37%), although that was on par with the ability to see missed episodes.
Interestingly, among Millennials, who estimate spending even more of their TV viewing time with time- shifted content, ad avoidance was less commonly cited as a benefit.
Only 29% cited the ability to skip ads as a top reason for watching shows later. Instead, Millennials were more likely to point to their unavailability during live airing.
While those results suggest that time-shifting will not have a huge impact on ad attention, other results from the survey are more worrisome for advertisers.
For example, among the 55% of respondents who are able to fast-forward through commercials (on some or all networks), 81% reported fast-forwarding through every commercial (49%) or most commercials (32%). Similarly, among those who record shows using a DVR, nine in 10 fast-forward through commercials all (56%) or most (34%) of the time.
Other findings:
• 53% of all time-shifting occurs through a DVR (34%)
or VOD (19%);
• Among those who use VOD at least once a week, anestimated 46% of all TV shows are watched live. The comparable figure for DVR users is 43%, while for those who use Hulu Plus and Netflix, it’s just 17%;
• 41% of respondents feel that having fast-forward disabled on VOD is a major “frustration.; and
• Drama and movies are the most-watched program types among viewers overall, as well as those who do most of their time-shifting via DVR and those who do most via VOD.