DVR's, Nielsens and "Lost"

This was getting buried down in comments on an earlier post, so I'll bring up Eli's comments and my reply to here:

Eli said:

Here's another thing with LOST and TV ratings...
How they conduct viewing audience is going to have to change. I know the mag Entertainment Weekly did a feature on this last year. People more and more are DVRing shows. I DVR every show I watch now because I am absolutely sick to death of commercials. I will not sit through a live, real time show (unless it's sports) anymore because of them.

In the case of LOST it's even more imperative to tape the show because of all the other things going on in the background. Check out the website "Lost Easter Eggs" (http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/) if you don't believe how many people dissect every second of every episode.

The article in yesterday's Life section [on "Lost's" sinking ratings], I think, was an Opinion Editorial that should not have ran in the state it did. The editors did a bad job of letting it run. In this case the article failed to mention that the latest numbers came on the heels of Valentine's Day, and failed to mention anything about DVRs or that LOST is likely the #1 DVRed show on the air. Which ratings (unless I'm mistaken) do NOT take into account.

It is increasingly apparent in this day and age - when Britney's head shaving and Anna Nichol Smith's embalmed body can consume every media venue in the US of A - that journalists no longer simply report the news, they have to go out and add to it.

My response

Eli, Nielsen did start measuring "time shifted" shows last year (it also just began measuring college students -- look for Adult Swim ratings to spike!). "Studio 60" gains the most viewers once you count DVRs in, although obviously not enough to make it a hit. The overall numbers of DVR users
are still relatively low. They matter, but not like you might think.

An unrelated, but I think interesting point, on DVR's: A recent study showed that most people with DVRs DO NOT skip commercials. I found that fascinating. Viewers either appreciate the chance to get up and use the john, or they forget to skip ahead, or there's a commercial that catches their attention, so they stop and watch it.

BTW, when you say "the editors did a bad job of letting it run," those editors would be me. I'm the guy who does the TV grids and the highlights and picks the stories for the daily TV page, so if you ever have a question, comment or complaint about that stuff, I'm your guy.