PVR'S CHALLENGE TO 30-SEC. SPOT CAN BE MET, NAB SPEAKERS SAY
LAS VEGAS -- The PVR is rapidly evolving beyond just a recording device, but broadcasters remain concerned about content protection and advertisers still view the technology as a serious threat, speakers said at the NAB convention here. 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,” he said.
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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 DVR, and there are plans for a multi-room DVR product that can distribute content throughout the home, Kiker said. There are also many similarities between DTV users and DVR users, including the average income of $64,600 and $66,200, respectively, Kiker said. Consumers continue to want dual-tuner setups, 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 the DVR service as excellent and 90% say they'll continue to subscribe to the service, Kiker said.
To convince broadcasters to embrace the PVR, advertisers have to overcome the notion that it’s a threat to the traditional 30-sec. spot. But PVRs are creating new ad models, speakers said. “Advertisers are going to see a renaissance not a demise,” said DiMa Group’s Thomas Morgan. “This is not doom and gloom.” 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.
DiMa is working on the ID!A Project that’s developing a standardization of ad units 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, which represent about $4 billion in ad revenue, and 6 programming networks.
Convincing commercial broadcasters to embrace PVRs so their content reaches consumers in new ways has been challenging, 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. Time Warner is 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 DVR does.”
Piracy concerns have left many broadcasters leery of 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 allowing content to be played only within 2 days after it’s broadcast.
Another issue is linking PVRs 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.