PVR ad-skipping technology costs industry £30m a year

by Sam Matthews,, Brand Republic 17-Jan-05, 14:10

LONDON – Personal video recorders are costing the UK advertising industry over £30m a year, according to a new report.

The TV industry receives over £3bn a year in advertising and wastes around 1% of those commercial impacts, or £30m a year, on ads that are not reaching the viewing public because of PVR technology, according to a review of US and UK TV viewing trends by audience connection company, The Big Picture.

This accounts for 45% of Sky+ and Sky multichannel users, who admit to regularly using their built-in PVRs. PVR technology is set to rise as more households turn to digital in the lead-up to analogue switchover in 2012.

Media agency Starcom Motive has predicted 5m homes in the UK will have PVR technology by 2008, with the figure expected to rise to a whopping 8m homes by 2012.

The problem is seen as a major one for broadcasters, and alternatives to traditional broadcast spots, which viewers can not avoid, are being sought. ITV chief executive Charles Allen recently announced plans to introduce on-screen logos during a show rather than just at the beginning and end, as part of an attempt to beat ad avoidance.

Speaking at the Royal Television Society Conference last September, Allen said that he has already started work on implementing the regulatory changes, which will have to go through Brussels not Ofcom, to allow product placement in the UK.

Clients are also very concerned and are looking for alternative marketing opportunities, with consumer product giant Procter & Gamble leading the way.

Jim Stengel, chief marketing officer at P&G, said: "It's clear we need new channels to reach consumers. Brands that rely too heavily on mainstream media, or that are not exploring new technologies and connection points, will lose touch."

Simon Andrews, founding partner of The Big Picture and a former Delaney Lund Knox Warren executive, said: "Viewers are fed up with being mugged by advertising everywhere they look."

He said that brands needed to provide content that was chosen by consumers.

"Be that [content] ad-funded programmes, mobile applications and content and broadband content that people seek out and spend serious time with. You don't get the big numbers you do with old-fashioned mass marketing but you replace quantity with quality," he said.

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