With the growth in DVR usage and commercial skipping, marketers and advertisers have increasingly turned to alternatives to the 30-second spot, with product placement being a common option. Now Nielsen is reporting that product placement dropped a cumulative 15% in the first half of the year while showing a distinct shift - broadcast network placements were up 12%, but cable placements were down 20%.

I found the report interesting reading just from the data on the numbers of actual product placements. I was surprised by just how many placements there are. For example, in the first half of 2008 American Idol alone had 4,636 product placements, followed by Biggest Loser with 4,364. Coca-Cola was the top brand, with 2,990 placements. The market was bombarded with 204,919 product placements in just the first half of 2008. So if you thought there were a lot of products slipped into your shows, you’re right.

Not surprisingly, reality programing has the most product placements as its easier to work products in than it is in a scripted show. But with the deluge of reality shows clogging up the airwaves, there may be too many programs to go around. Audiences can only take so much, and with more shows on the air advertisers may not get as much of a concentration of viewers.

Personally I abhor most reality shows and do everything I can not to watch them. I guess I few shows I watch, like Iron Chef America, technically fall into the category though. But even avoiding the big reality shows, I’ve noticed a growing amount of product placement. One of the shows I enjoyed last season, The Big Bang Theory, had a lot of product placement worked into the program. Characters made very obvious use of Dell laptops, and one character works at The Cheesecake Factory, as is mentioned repeatedly. This season of Eureka is partly sponsored by Degree antiperspirant, which includes fairly intrusive, annoying product placement in the program itself. It is so clumsily handled that it’d be better if the characters just stopped and pitched the product for 30 seconds. It is annoying enough to make me want to never use the product.

I wonder if the increasing ‘in your face’ aspect of product placements is a symptom of the same saturation effect. It reminds me very much of web-based advertising, and how ads became increasingly aggressive with pop-ups, pop-unders, sound, animation, etc. Desperately trying to attract consumers, while in reality it was increasingly driving them away. Unfortunately I don’t expect an ad-blocker for product placements any time soon.

Spotted through Silicon Valley Insider.

The GateWorld blog is reporting on the ratings for the season premier of Stargate Atlantis, ‘Search and Rescue’. While Nielsen reported 1.8 million viewers, giving a 1.3 rating, that’s under their ‘Live + Same Day’ ratings. Under their ‘Live + Seven Day’ ratings, which includes delayed DVR viewings, the numbers jumped to 2.4 million viewers, which would yield a rating of 1.7. This is direct evidence of the difference DVRs make to viewership and ratings, a difference which will only increase as DVR use grows. The industry is facing a massive change in how ratings are measured and ads are sold, and the advertising industry can only resist the use of DVR-based ratings for so long. With services like TiVo’s Stop||Watch able to provide detailed statistics on ad viewing there may be all new methods of advertising sales and ratings measurement yet to come.

A new report from Nielsen, reported in Brodcasting & Cable, reports that DVRs actually increase TV viewing - which is probably not a surprise for DVR owners. Comparing viewing by 18-to-49 year olds in November 2005 to viewing in November 2007, when DVR use had increased, Nielsen found a slight increase in viewing throughout the day. It was 3% higher at 9pm, and 5% higher between 11pm and midnight. Users take advantage of their DVRs to watch more programming, but on their own schedules.

Nielsen categorized DVR owners into three categories, based on how much they time shift programming.

Heavy shifters, mostly women aged 18-49, are heavy TV viewers and shift nearly one-half of their total viewing using DVRs.

Medium shifters watch slightly more TV than an average person and shift about one-third of their programs.

Light shifters — which Nielsen classified as being 70% of DVR households — watch less television than normal people and shift about 10% of their shows, mostly to catch episodes they may have missed.

If heavy shifters shift ‘nearly one-half’ of their viewing, I must be depleted uranium. 100% of my TV viewing, at home at least, is via TiVo.

Via EngadgetHD.

The LA Times published a quick ‘By the numbers‘ today with numbers from Nielsen Media Research. They report that 22% of homes have a DVR, up from just 2% two years ago. And streaming media seems to be big with a younger audience with 39% of adults 18-to-34 having watched a full-length TV episode streamed online in the last three months. The percentage drops to 25% for all adults. Similarly 56% of 18-to34 year olds use DVRs, the Internet, VOD, and PMPs to follow TV series, while only 21% of those over 55 do.

I don’t think it is that surprising that young users are more likely to embrace tech and new ways to obtain media.