Live Plus 3, TV Networks Move into the DVR Age

In case you missed the news, the major networks will be using a new mechanism for tracking their ratings this season. Instead of the overnight ratings they will be using “Live plus 3″ which is the ratings for the people who watched when the show came on or who watched it on the DVR in the next 3 days. This is a great step forward towards acknowledging that a number of us watch TV on our schedule now and not on theirs. As I thought about this advance a few thoughts occur to me.

If everyone had DVRs think about how good that would be for the networks. Right now prime-time is 3 hours long and outside that the network assumes no one is watching, but my DVR is watching and would gladly record shows of interest to me. So that makes that time more valuable to the network. Of course I usually fast forward through commercials and that makes the time I watch shows less valuable to the network. But then when there is a good commercial that catches my eye I rewind, watch it again and show it to my family which makes it more valuable. OK, so it would be fair to say that this whole DVR thing complicates the life of the network.

I also noticed that in my family our DVR has shows that are a month old that we plan to get around to watching. So “Live plus 3″ will still not see our activity, even though it is a step in the right direction.

The whole DVR, TV on the internet, TV over ip will make television an interesting industry to watch over the next few years, but I would suspect the networks would appreciate it being a lot more boring.