New Ratings Data Reveals Commercials Airing During Popular Programs Lost Up to 84% of Potential Audiences in May
TiVo Unveils New Stop||Watch(TM) Ratings Service Features, Increases Sample Size to 250,000 Subscribers from 100,000
ALVISO, Calif., July 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced a first look at its Pure Program Ratings, which were derived using the number of TiVo(R) subscribers viewing a program, live or Timeshifted, excluding the commercials, to arrive at the total potential audience for the commercials during a given program. This new metric, one of many on-going regular enhancements to TiVo's Stop||Watch(TM) ratings service, was compiled for the month of May.
Current industry services measure a program's viewership rating without separating the program content from the commercials that air during it. TiVo's Pure Program Ratings separates the ratings and makes it possible to determine the percentage of potential viewers lost during a program's commercial breaks.
"For example, in the table below, the May 7 episode of Grey's Anatomy had a Pure Program Timeshifted audience of 17.0," said Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement. "That means there was potential to deliver a commercial audience of 17.0 ratings points, if every viewer watching stuck around during the commercial breaks. However, looking at the Commercial Timeshifted Rating, we see most viewers didn't and commercials running during the program only received a 2.7 rating. Simply put, 14.3 ratings points worth of audience or 84% of available viewers during timeshifted viewing were lost to fast-forwarding during commercials."
Juenger continued, "Among the most fundamental insights our clients look for from the Stop||Watch ratings service is the relationship between program audiences and commercial audiences. Audiences for television programs have always been defined by the entire program block, including all the content, commercials and promotion elements. While we continue to offer that, in the world of DVR viewing, it's no longer sufficient. We have always offered our clients audience ratings for specific commercials, one by one or aggregated. Now we are also providing the converse, audience ratings for purely program content. Doing so puts in even starker terms the challenge of delivering traditional commercial messages to a Timeshifted viewing audience."
May - Top Pure Program Ratings (Timeshifted and Live Viewing)
-------------------------------------------------------------
* Analysis of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX
Top Pure Program Ratings* - Timeshifted Viewing
Pure
Program Program Commercial
Program Date Rating Rating Rating
1. Grey's Anatomy - ABC 7 - May 17.0 12.5 2.7
2. Grey's Anatomy - ABC 14 - May 16.8 13.1 3.3
3. Grey's Anatomy - ABC 30 - Apr 16.7 12.4 2.9
4. American Idol - FOX 5 - May 13.4 10.8 2.5
5. Desperate Housewives
- ABC 10 - May 13.3 10.2 2.7
6. Desperate Housewives
- ABC 3 - May 13.2 10.1 2.7
7. American Idol - FOX 28 - Apr 13.1 10.5 2.4
8. American Idol - FOX 12 - May 13.1 10.7 2.6
9. American Idol - FOX 20 - May 13.1 10.8 2.7
10. American Idol - FOX 19 - May 12.7 10.2 2.5
Top Pure Program Ratings* - Live Viewing
Pure
Program Program Commercial
Program Date Rating Rating Rating
1. American Idol - FOX 20 - May 5.0 5.0 5.0
2. American Idol - FOX 13 - May 4.6 4.6 4.6
3. American Idol - FOX 6 - May 4.6 4.5 4.4
4. American Idol - FOX 29 - Apr 4.6 4.5 4.5
5. American Idol - FOX 19 - May 4.5 4.4 4.3
6. American Idol - FOX 28 - Apr 4.2 4.2 4.0
7. American Idol - FOX 12 - May 4.1 4.0 3.9
8. American Idol - FOX 5 - May 4.1 4.0 3.9
9. Dancing with the Stars
- ABC 19 - May 3.7 3.6 3.5
10. Dancing with the Stars
- ABC 18 - May 3.6 3.6 3.5
TiVo also highlighted the Top Commercial and Program Rankings for May among both Total and Timeshifted viewers, using the Stop||Watch ratings service.
