Strategies to Entice Viewers to Watch Live TV , not on DVR

Filed in archive Announcements on April 14, 2005

There really is no limit to the ways one can rationalize a topic when facing an ugly reality. Take for instance an article in today's Wall Street Journal entitled Networks Take On the Time Machine. Its general premise is that some networks are working to give scheduled programs the sheen of a live sports event or one-time-only spectacular to compel viewers to watch in real time rather than recording them for later viewing.

Executive really don't get it if they think ideas like this might work. My favorite quote from the article is:

"As May approaches, so does some of the networks' most-compelling content: cliffhanger plots, shocking story turns, and season and series finales. Among potential highlights are this season's last, tension-filled episodes of "24" on News Corp.'s Fox; the series finale of "Everybody Loves Raymond" on Viacom's CBS; and the potential for enigma-solving on "Lost" on Walt Disney's ABC. If there is a place to take a stand against ad-skipping, this is it."

The DVR allows a viewer to 'time shift' a show and watch it at his/her own convenience. That really is the main point of the device -- even over ad-skipping. Ironically, on my DVR the only show that we faithfully record and refuse to watch all season is Fox's 24. The reason is that we love it.

A season ago my wife commented that she hated watching an episode only to wait another week to see how Jack Bower was going to get out of this week's pickle. Additionally, we also don't like to watch the ads. Our solution was simple, record all 24 episdodes before even watching this season!

No amount of hype is going to make us want to watch the ads. Likewise, no impending sense of urgency is going to make us start watching even the first episode of this season's 24 before we know that we have them all recorded. Then, over a week or two (probably by summer) we will watch the whole season at one time. Not only is it convenient, but we get back roughly 432 minutes of our life, too. (That is, skipping 18 minutes of commercials per episode over 24 episodes).

And this is the real problem that networks face. I have the control over my viewing patterns and they don't.