he growing popularity of personal video recorders (PVRs) that allow viewers to skip advertising breaks will damage the business model of commercial broadcasters and threaten investment in genres such as drama and comedy, according to recent research in the UK. In homes with personal video recorders, about 42 per cent of the TV shows are recorded. And in them, about 77 per cent of the ad breaks are skipped.


The study, compiled by media buying agency PHD predicts that by the end of the decade there will be an 8.7 per cent decline in commercial "impacts"- the number of times any one advert is viewed. The fall would be much worse, says the study, were it not for the fact that in multichannel homes there is a 31 per cent increase in viewing of commercial channels compared to those with the traditional five analogue channels. The research also shows that homes with PVRs watch a fifth more television than those without.
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