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TiVo has released data from its StopWatch service, which tracks second-by-second viewing on 20,000 of its DVRs, and the data shows that the fall-off in ratings from prime time programs to commercial breaks within those programs may be higher than Nielsen’s commercial ratings would suggest.
Nielsen’s commercial ratings, which measure the average ratings for all commercials within a program, showed that the fall-off in viewing was about 7 percent. The TiVo ratings that have been released, though they were only topline ratings, indicate a much higher level of drop-off, Media Life writes.
The May 3 episode of Grey’s Anatomy had a 24.9 rating, while the highest-rated commercial in the show generated only an 18.9, for example. That’s a decline of 24 percent. A Burger King spot during the April 18 episode of American Idol drew a 15.3 rating, compared to a 20.8 rating for the program - a 26 percent difference. Consider that that Burger King ad was the highest-rated ad for the month of April and it’s easy to see how these results might feed advertiser fears that Nielsen’s commercial ratings are inadequate measures of TV ads.
Of course, Nielsen’s commercial ratings and TiVo’s StopWatch are not comparing apples to apples. Nielsen measures the average of all commercials during a particular show, while the TiVo service measures each second of program and commercial viewing.
Too, TiVo’s StopWatch measures viewing only in homes that have DVRs, whereas Nielsen’s pool contains only a small percentage of DVR users. Though it is well-known that DVR users can, and do, zap commercials when they watch recorded shows, it isn’t clear whether their TV viewing behavior during live shows is different from their non-DVR-owning counterparts.
The differences in these two measurement services aside, the TiVo data may serve as another wedge for media buyers to use to convince Nielsen it needs to improve its system for rating commercials.
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