MediaPost: Magna: Nielsen Data An 'Eye-Opener,' Reveals Ravages Of DVRs Over Time

Media buying outfit Magna released study results showing that digital video recorders (DVRs) like Tivo provide what Magna interprets as an increasing temptation over time to skip commercials. The study found that while about half of first-year users skip commercials, about three quarters of more veteran users do so. Magna's interpretation may be skewed by the fact that the first Tivo buyers may have been the more anti-commercial consumers. Other studies have shown that early adopters generally tend to be less tolerant of ads, and it's unclear if this bias was factored out of the Magna results. Old internet hands, for instance, will remember much higher anti-ad behavior when display advertising first became available online, as well as among users of each new browser introduction.

Using expected DVR penetration figures - showing about 45 percent of households with the devices by 2010 - the worst case scenario could have about one in every six broadcast ads skipped. If, instead, Magna's data actually shows the opposite - that new people coming into DVR use are more representative of the general population - then only about one in eight ads will be skipped.