MySky users slow to embrace changing times

New Zealanders with MySky digital video recorders are still watching most of their TV live rather than recording programmes and watching them later.

The first survey of MySky viewer behaviour shows New Zealanders have been slow to adopt "time shifting" - watching programmes at a different time from when they are first screened.

But advertising and marketing consultants expect that will change as MySky, MyFreeview, TiVo and other digital video recorder (DVR) brands become more common.

Sky Television has recorded behaviour for 313 users of its MySky HDi service. The survey shows that more than three quarters of viewing on Sky is for free-to-air channels - which may come as a relief for TV One, TV2, TV3, C4 and Prime.

The survey reveals 76 per cent viewing on MySky HDi is "live" - watching shows as they are broadcast.

Just 22 per cent of viewing is time-shifted content and 2 per cent is "live paused" where programming, typically a live sports event, can be paused then continued.

Michael Carney, of advertising consultancy The Media Counsel, is not surprised and says radical change is unlikely, after all the VCR never led to the collapse of free-to-air television in the 1980s. DVRs with on-screen programming guides are essentially an easy-to-use version of VCRs. But marketing consultants Martin Gillman and Jonathan Dodd believe viewer behaviour will be altered and with that the use of television as a marketing tool.

DVRs add a new factor to the complex equation of where to place ads. As DVRs take off, advertisers will not only have to take account of when a TV show is broadcast, but also when it is actually watched.

The Sky survey avoids "the elephant in the room" - the ability for DVR users to fast-forward through ad breaks, undermining the financial structure for free-to-air TV.

MySky HDi has no option to skip through ad breaks altogether. The version of TiVo set to be introduced here in July, and part-owned by TVNZ, does not have the skip function that was available in the US.

TIME SHIFTING

* 76 per cent of My Sky viewing is for "live TV" - watching shows as they are broadcast.
* 59 per cent of time-shifted viewing was from Sky channels and 41 per cent from free-to-air.
* Movies are the most time-shifted genre, news and current affairs the least.
* 73 per cent of recorded programming is watched within three days and 90 per cent within seven days.
* 58 per cent of survey respondents said viewing had increased and 59 per cent watched more channels.