A new study has shown that the likelihood of a television commercial being watched by a DVR user goes down as more time passes between the airdate and when it's actually watched, according to TV Week.
The study from Nielsen shows that commercials gain 16 ratings percentage points within the first 27 hours after the recording of the show during which the commercials were shown. The ratings gain for the full seven days measured by Nielsen was just 22 percent, showing that most of the ratings gain comes in that initial 27-hour period.
TV viewing in general is less likely to be done live in homes that have a DVR. All of this is likely to factor greatly into the ongoing debate over Nielsen's commercial ratings figures and, specifically, how they're used in future negotiations between ad buyers and the networks selling the commercial time.
