TV Screen Hasn't Lost Luster
By Stewart Schley -- Multichannel News, 5/14/2007
Las Vegas — iPods are ubiquitous, cellphones are gleaming with video and YouTube collects 71,000 fresh video uploads every day. But the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau doesn't view these devices as a threat to cable television and the advertisers that support it.
An update to an October 2006 consumer survey called “Which Screen” that CAB conducted found that traditional ad-supported television — and the 30-second commercials that have long been its economic staple — continues to thrive and grow.
CAB president Sean Cunningham shared preliminary results from the updated research at the opening session of the CAB's Sales Management Conference, held in tandem with The Cable Show here last week.
The CAB boss said that among the survey's more telling findings is the fact that viewers appear to be far more tolerant of advertising within a traditional TV setting than they are on alternate video devices. According to the CAB survey, viewers indicated a willingness to accept advertisements that last up to 42 seconds on traditional TV platforms, versus 18 seconds for ads appearing on PCs, a dozen for ads on mobile-video devices and only nine for commercial messages on video-enabled cell phones. “The lines are drawn on ad receptivity very, very sharply,” Cunningham said.
That duration/receptivity finding, plus the realization that average TV-viewing time per person has climbed to a record 31 hours per week, suggests that the remarkable proliferation of video gadgets seems to be inspiring more interest in watching TV in general, Cunningham said.
The CAB revisited findings of its 2006 survey at the request of ad-industry executives who said conditions have changed even since the trade group first released its Which Screen survey last autumn.
