AD-SKIPPING AND CONTENT CONCERNS ARE BIGGEST PVR HURDLES, NAB IS TOLD

A major milestone, due to ship in the next several days to dealers, is the first HD-PVRs for DirectTV, which will retail for about $1,000, said Skip Pizzi, Microsoft mgr.-technology policy. But, with such evolving technologies, “there are lingering concerns on content protection and ad-skipping, Pizzi said.

The industry has to catch up to consumer demand, speakers said. The cable PVR industry is rapidly growing, said Jim Kiker of Scientific-Atlanta. More than 80 cable systems have Explorer 8000 PVR, and there are plans for a multi-room PVR product that can distribute content throughout the home, Kiker said. There are also many similarities between DTV users and PVR users, including the average income of $64,600 and $66,200, respectively, Kiker said. Consumers continue to want dual-turner set ups, where they have the ability to record a show while watching another, or record 2 shows at the same time. In fact, 77% of households are using dual tuners several times a week, 75% are rating their PVR service as excellent and 90% say they'll continue to subscribe, Kiker said.

To convince broadcasters to adopt the PVR, advertisers have to overcome the notion that the PVR is a threat to the traditional 30-sec. spot. “Advertisers are going to see a renaissance not a demise,” said DiMa Group’s Thomas Morgan.

The PVR is creating new ad models, speakers said. PVRs have created a diversity of ad units where a longer ad format can be used to target a household profile. For example, during a sporting event, if a viewer chose to look up the biography of a player, an alert during the program would display linking the viewer to the biography information that’s sponsored by a major ad company, such as Coca-Cola, Morgan said: “This is not doom and gloom.”

DiMa is working on the ID!A Project that is developing a standardization of ad units, which include different platforms to deliver a brand message beyond a 30-sec. spot. About 40 industries are participating. The project is also testing the ad units with consumers, Morgan said. Roughly 17 different industries are participating in the year-long project, including 8 advertisers that represent about $4 billion in ad revenue, and 6 programming networks.

Convincing commercial broadcasters to use PVRs so their content reaches consumers in new ways has been challenging at the BBC, said Adam Hume of BBC: “Broadcasters in the U.K. don’t understand the benefits.” Consumers want to run content anywhere and on any device that they own, he said. As a way to get that message out to consumers and broadcasters, Time Warner began running ads showing how a father watching a golf game can pause the program to help his son with his homework with the tagline: “Life doesn’t have a pause button, but your PVR does.”

Piracy concerns have left many broadcasters leery of embracing the PVR. However, broadcasters can adopt MPEG digital rights management, which allows broadcasters to designate rights and permissions for how consumers can use their content, said Michael Raley of ContentGuard. While Rights Expression is not copy control, Raley said it does have use provisions such as only allowing content to be played 2 days after it’s broadcast.

Another issue is linking the PVR to metadata, which can allow advertisers to target a certain household. “You hear that content is king, well metadata is queen,” said Mika Neergaard of Melodies & Memories Global. “Without linking metadata in the PVR chain you have nothing more than a video recorder,” said Simon Parnell, chmn. of TVAF.