TiVo’s “Pure Program” Ratings Enhances DVR Appeal for Advertisers

TiVo has unveiled its "Pure Program Ratings" function which lets advertisers see how many viewers ignore their commercials. The new feature, embedded in TiVo's "StopWatch" service, compares viewing of the TV show to the commercial breaks within it.

The initial results are stunning. TiVo cited a May episode of the popular ABC-TV "Grey's Anatomy" show, where the commercials lost 84% of the potential viewers. The show itself had a 17.0 rating, but the commercials running during the show, when viewed by timeshifting TiVo customers, had a 2.7 rating. TiVo's May StopWatch ratings also provided separate top-10 commercial and top-10 program rankings among total and timeshifted viewers, demonstrating that there is less and less correlation between the top-rated programs and top-viewed commercials.

As digital video recorders, such as TiVo climb past 35% U.S. home penetration, this kind of data can have immense impact on advertisers and program networks. For CE companies, the availability of DVRs becomes both a gift (making time shifting capability more attractive to customers) and a challenge (making their own TV commercials watchable in DVR homes).