As DVRs Shift TV Habits, Ratings Calculations Follow

The ratings for live television are just a starting point now. On-demand viewing behaviors, which have been reshaping television since the first TiVo DVR was shipped in 1999, are becoming more pronounced with each passing year, sometimes to the benefit of networks and advertisers and other times to their detriment.

What is notable about the start of the new fall TV season, according to network executives, is a surge in not just delayed viewing, but very-delayed viewing. Some people who might have previously time-shifted the new NBC drama “The Blacklist” by one day, for example, are now waiting longer to watch, partly because of the sheer number of shows on their mental to-watch lists. This is simultaneously good and bad for television networks — good because a higher total rating after seven days helps prove that television networks can still spawn hugely popular shows, even in an age of media fragmentation, but bad because advertisers aren’t currently paying for all the viewers who come along later. Changes in viewer behavior continue to outpace changes in the television business model.