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Originally Posted by gee_ess
I am not sure I believe the DVR conspiracy theory. IMO, dvr allows people to tune into more than one show - isn't viewership what they are after? And, chances are, I might end up watching a commercial or two (though, highly doubt it!). Besides, with the blatant product placements, we are not being deprived from influence. (off topic, but did anyone see the blatant State Farm promo in last week's Jon and Kate episode? It was so obvious, I laughed).
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The progressive (sarcasm) folks at Nielson have not yet figured out how to figure in DVR viewers. DVR views are not counted. The networks want you to watch the show live, because it's the only way they can sell advertisers on viewers. People DVR for two reasons: because they're not home/busy and so can't watch, or they prefer to watch another show at the same time. The latter is not a good way to win over advertisers either, and so the networks don't really have an incentive to know/care how many people are DVRing their shows. One of the major benefits of DVR is that you don't have to watch commercials; I have a DVR and I always FF through the ads. The networks started beginning and ending shows late so they could basically punish people for "cheating" and con them into tuning in live. Notice that this is an issue with a number of shows now...not just shows like AI. My evening news is scheduled to go until 11:35 every night.
Take AI for example. If the network wanted it to end on time, it's easily accomplished through editing. They didn't edit it to fit the allotted time, fourth judge or not. They end it at different times to keep you guessing...so you can't set your DVR for the same time every week.