It's being billed as the biggest change to TV ratings since electronic people meters were introduced nearly 20 years ago.
It's being billed as the biggest change to TV ratings since electronic people meters were introduced nearly 20 years ago.
In nine days, TV audiences overnight could jump 20 per cent for some shows when the ratings agency owned by the commercial broadcasters, OzTAM, presses the button on an overhauled ratings system.
From December 27, TV ratings for the first time will include viewing from homes that use digital video recorders such as Foxtel's IQ, Seven Media Group's TiVo and the host of off-the-shelf recorders now in about 25 per cent of Australian households.
Overseas, the take-up of DVRs has delivered one clear trend: punters watch more TV because they can easily record shows.
And what's got the TV industry buzzing here is that, until now, not one home in the OzTAM ratings panel has a DVR, which, aside from casting doubt on the accuracy of the ratings figures for the past two years, means overall TV audiences have been underestimated.
That all changes next Sunday when a quarter of homes in the OzTAM panel will have DVRs.
Viewing of genres such as drama, movies and documentaries and during much of prime time is expected to rocket. And pay-TV stations such as Foxtel and Austar and Network Ten are likely to attract bigger audiences because the OzTAM panel of homes has been skewed to older demographics. That also means the top-rating network, Seven, could face a ratings fall, although media buyers believe it will make little difference because the overall rise in viewing from DVR homes will offset Seven's loss of older viewers.
Pay TV is the most eager for the new results to emerge because more than half its metropolitan subscribers now have an IQ DVR and none of their viewing has been reported in official ratings figures.
"Look, there's no question this is the biggest, most substantial change to TV ratings since we moved from diaries to people meters," says Anthony Fitzgerald, chief executive of Foxtel's commercial sales arm MCN. "We are going to see significant change overnight because this is being done in one fell swoop in Australia. In other parts of the world it has been progressively introduced."
Mr Fitzgerald points to DVR ownership raising viewing by about 20 per cent in the US and 15 per cent in Britain.
But with the expectation of bigger television audiences next year comes the sobering news that DVRs make it possible to skip the ads.
According to a recent study by Network Ten and Starcom Mediavest, 64 per cent of Australians with DVRs say they "use the function frequently".
Even that news, however, doesn't appear to be rattling advertisers. One of the biggest buyers of TV advertising air time in the country, OMD's Peter Horgan, says the high levels of ad-skipping in DVR homes will still deliver an overall benefit to the TV networks.
"Viewing increases will be more modest for advertisers after ad-skipping is accounted for," he says.
IT'S being billed as the biggest change to TV ratings since electronic people meters were introduced nearly 20 years ago.
In nine days, TV audiences overnight could jump 20 per cent for some shows when the ratings agency owned by the commercial broadcasters, OzTAM, presses the button on an overhauled ratings system.
From December 27, TV ratings for the first time will include viewing from homes that use digital video recorders such as Foxtel's IQ, Seven Media Group's TiVo and the host of off-the-shelf recorders now in about 25 per cent of Australian households.
Overseas, the take-up of DVRs has delivered one clear trend: punters watch more TV because they can easily record shows.
And what's got the TV industry buzzing here is that, until now, not one home in the OzTAM ratings panel has a DVR, which, aside from casting doubt on the accuracy of the ratings figures for the past two years, means overall TV audiences have been underestimated.
That all changes next Sunday when a quarter of homes in the OzTAM panel will have DVRs.
Viewing of genres such as drama, movies and documentaries and during much of prime time is expected to rocket. And pay-TV stations such as Foxtel and Austar and Network Ten are likely to attract bigger audiences because the OzTAM panel of homes has been skewed to older demographics. That also means the top-rating network, Seven, could face a ratings fall, although media buyers believe it will make little difference because the overall rise in viewing from DVR homes will offset Seven's loss of older viewers.
Pay TV is the most eager for the new results to emerge because more than half its metropolitan subscribers now have an IQ DVR and none of their viewing has been reported in official ratings figures.
"Look, there's no question this is the biggest, most substantial change to TV ratings since we moved from diaries to people meters," says Anthony Fitzgerald, chief executive of Foxtel's commercial sales arm MCN. "We are going to see significant change overnight because this is being done in one fell swoop in Australia. In other parts of the world it has been progressively introduced."
Mr Fitzgerald points to DVR ownership raising viewing by about 20 per cent in the US and 15 per cent in Britain.
But with the expectation of bigger television audiences next year comes the sobering news that DVRs make it possible to skip the ads.
According to a recent study by Network Ten and Starcom Mediavest, 64 per cent of Australians with DVRs say they "use the function frequently".
Even that news, however, doesn't appear to be rattling advertisers. One of the biggest buyers of TV advertising air time in the country, OMD's Peter Horgan, says the high levels of ad-skipping in DVR homes will still deliver an overall benefit to the TV networks.
"Viewing increases will be more modest for advertisers after ad-skipping is accounted for," he says.
