Impact of Digitization and DVRs on Advertisements in India

Author(s)

Shalini Kalia, Nishant Puri, K.N. Karthikeyan and Shubhashish Biswas

Affiliations

1. Department of Business Communication, IMT Ghaziabad, India
2. Department of Information Management, Deloitte Consulting US India Pvt Ltd, India
3. Customer Evaluation and Analytics, Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd (Tata Administrative Services), India
4. Microsoft Corporation India

Abstract

Whether proliferation of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) would be the end of the 30 second spot or not has been a debatable topic since its launch. Globally, the number of television households with DVRs is projected to reach 337.6 million by the year 2018 and the impact of DVRs can no longer be ignored. Research has already proven that advertisers who ignore the impact of DVRs risk wasting valuable advertising resources. Advertisers who are aware of this threat are already coming up with innovative ways of getting their messages across to consumers, even in a time-shifted world.

In India, DVR penetration is still nascent but is estimated to become significant in the next few years. The available literature review on DVR is mainly related to the US and European countries; hardly any research has been done on impact of DVRs in the context of India. Through in-depth interviews with media experts in India, this study attempts to analyze their perception regarding impact of digitization & DVRs on effectiveness of advertisements; and the implications for media planning and creative execution.

It has been concluded from the study that the leading media planners in India are aware of the challenges and opportunities posed by DVR. Although the current scenario related to impact of DVR on advertising in Indian market is not perceived as alarming, but experts believe that awareness regarding the issue and timely strategic planning would help the advertisers effectively combat the challenges posed by DVRs in future.

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