PVR lands with huge implications for advertisers

Because the PVR will not only allow viewers to pre-record 80 hours of content onto its massive built-in 160 Gig hard drive, but it will also automatically record the past two hours of whatever programme is being watched.

All of which suggests that the first thing viewers will do is 'zap' commercials. Which might just prompt advertisers to ask why on earth they should continue placing their commercials on the DSTV bouquet.

Well, Multichoice has not lost the plot nor are they being stupid or chasing advertisers away.

In fact, they're simply being realistic and very wide awake.

Why PVR makes sense

The PVR makes advertising sense for a number of reasons...

First of all, any media owner in South Africa with half a brain will by now fully understand that not only will the survival of mass media depend to a huge extent on the quality of content but just as importantly on the way it delivers that content.
The new PVR will herald video-by-demand in South Africa which is a worldwide trend among viewers wanting to dictate when they want to watch something on TV, not when the TV stations dictate when they should watch.

This is not only a trend but something that will be a given in the future when broadband internet starts making serious inroads into society and fibre-optic cables coming into home servers will allow consumers to not only pick and choose what they want to see but when they want to see it.

So all Multichoice has done is react timeously to the absolute inevitable.

But, what about ads being zapped? Well, once again it seems to me that Multichoice has accepted the inevitable.

Research study after research study is showing that fewer and fewer TV viewers are actually watching typical commercials placed in typical commercial breaks. My own opinion is that in fact fewer and fewer viewers are watching bad commercials. TV viewers still love great commercials.

Advertisers need to be more creative

What Multichoice seems to have grasped is that the traditional view we have long held about placing anything from 10 second to three minute commercials in ad breaks is fast becoming a thing of the past.

And that inevitably advertisers will simply just have to become a lot more creative and ingenious in terms of how they showcase products, brands and services on television.

Sure, there will be those advertisers that might decide to walk away from TV once video-on-demand starts catching on. But, there will be others that will see the enormous potential that is being opened up with innovations such as the PVR.

For instance TV shows on advertising have proved conclusively that South Africans particularly, love great commercials and hate bad ones.

So while bad ads might be zapped, the PVR will allow viewers to bookmark and go back to the really great ads and watch them over and over again. This added value is not wishful thinking, this is the reality of video-on-demand, particularly in South Africa.

On top of which, future versions of the PVR will have a system whereby one's address and credit card details are built into the memory and when an ad comes up for a special offer on pizzas, for example, a simple touch of a button will not only have it ordered and paid for but delivered within minutes.

The retail industry, especially big TV players such as the Glomails of this world will surely be welcoming the advent of the PVR with opens arms.

Personally, I reckon that the only mistake Multichoice is making is to underestimate how many of these things they will sell.

Rumour has it that it will retail for between R2000 and R3000 and when I've mentioned this to friends and family, I have yet to come across anyone who doesn't want one immediately!