The growth of broadband Internet programming and the increased market penetration of mobile devices and digital video recorders is altering the traditional television landscape, Larry Adoff, a San Francisco-based account executive for The Nielsen Co., told a Bend audience Thursday.

For advertisers, the good news is that the vast majority of people still watch scheduled TV programming at home, Adoff said.

Adoff, who spoke at the monthly luncheon of the Advertising Federation of Central Oregon, also discussed some of the viewing habits of Deschutes County, which makes up the Bend Designated Market Area. The Bend DMA is the 192nd largest in the nation in terms of viewers, out of 210.

Crook and Jefferson counties are included in the Portland DMA.

Adoff estimated 18 percent of the households in the Bend DMA have a digital video recorder at home, which is roughly the average in other markets.

A digital video recorder, or DVR, records television and enables a user to pause the programming as well as watch it hours or even days later. The word TiVo, often heard in conjunction with DVRs, signifies a popular brand of DVR.

Adoff said DVRs are amazing products that are changing viewers television habits.

In Nielsens parlance, TV programming that has been recorded for later viewing is termed time-shifted. Adoff said the most time-shifted programming occurs in prime time (8 to 11 p.m.), and that news and sports are the least time-shifted programs.

Adoff said 50 percent of television viewers watch a program the same day they record it and 70 percent watch a program within three days of recording.

That could have implications for advertisers with time-sensitive messages, said Cam Davis, a copywriter who owns the Bend-based advertising firm Wordplay.

Lots of (ad) agencies have clients with sudden sales, and if you consider youre losing

30 percent of the market because of DVRs, you have to think ahead, Davis said. Youd have to consider radio or newspapers instead because of the delay.

Adoff said even though DVR viewership has grown 37 percent nationally from 2007 to 2008, households with DVRs still end up watching approximately half the commercials in the programs they record. Adoff said reasons behind this can be as simple as users forgetting they can fast-forward through them or because they still like to watch certain commercials that are catchy or have good word-of-mouth.

DVRs shouldnt affect how advertisers buy, Adoff said. I think most people are still going to watch commercials.

Matt Hand, who produces advertising spots through his company, Pinnacle Media, said many in the advertising industry are worried about DVRs, but he uses one at home and loves it. The key, he said, is for advertisers to get more creative, which will spark viewers curiosity and get them to slow down during commercial breaks.

For a creative ad, (viewers) will go back and watch that ad again, because they enjoy it or because its creative, Hand said.

The TV pie

During his presentation, Adoff didnt discuss Nielsen ratings for Bends four network stations and declined to do so afterward.

Bends newest television station, CBS affiliate KBNZ-TV, went on air last week. Asked how four network stations might divvy up the regions advertising money, Adoff said, Theres always room.

The pie is always the pie, and it depends on how its split, Adoff said, adding that the regions demographic growth can enlarge the size of the pie, although any growth is tempered by the rough economy.

Adoff also discussed how Nielsen surveys viewers to compile its rating data. In the nations largest markets, electronic monitors installed on viewers TVs tally what viewers are watching and transmit that data immediately to Nielsen, which enables the company to issue its overnight ratings the day after a program airs.

In smaller markets, including Bend, Nielsen still relies on paper diaries that are sent to viewers who have been screened to participate in a particular survey period. Adoff said Nielsen would like to switch its smaller markets from paper diaries to electronic monitors but doesnt expect it will happen anytime soon.

Adoff also said roughly

12.5 percent of households in the Bend DMA get their programming through land-based over-the-air transmission, rather than cable or satellite. In the Portland DMA, the figure is 17.4 percent. Adoff also said that Nielsen estimates 10 percent of households in the county are unprepared for the upcoming switch to digital transmission, slated to occur Feb. 17, 2009.

Adoff also said more people are watching television on their mobile devices and their computers and that Nielsen is working on ways to track such viewership.