Monday night the film industry may have figured out a way to combat a growing problem faced by most television advertisers; time shifting. Wikipedia, that bastion of all things completely true and accurate, defines “time shifting” as:
“the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts.”
While time shifting may be all the rage these days, I’ve been doing it since September of 2003 when I first purchased Tivo. Ever since, it is the rare television show that I will watch live. Anyone who has ever owned a Tivo or DVR knows the luxury of being able to record your favorite television shows, and even live events, so that you can watch them whenever you want. And for those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, you might want to join the 21st century as soon as humanly possible by taking a trip to your local electronics store to pick up one of God’s gifts to couch potatoes.
One of the greatest features of Tivo and DVRs is their ability to allow viewers to skip over commercials either through fast forwarding through them, or jumping ahead 30 seconds. While consumers may be saving millions of hours by jumping past plugs for the latest laundry detergent or gas guzzling SUV, advertisers have been griping quite loudly about their commercials being “zapped” for some time now.
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