DVR usage shifts prime time (a bit)

from Brian Stelter's NYT article "Jay Leno's Move..."

...Mr. Leno’s show...as the Monday-through-Friday “strip”...defuses the risk of Mr. Leno’s move to another network...saves untold millions of dollars a year. But it also reflects the increasing irrelevance of the network schedule.

The irrelevance is partly [due to] digital video recorders, the bane of many a television executive....Of the 10 prime-time programs that gained the biggest audience from DVR usage this year, none were on at 10 p.m.

The biggest gainers from DVR viewership were dramas...the NBC series “Heroes”....[t]he new Fox drama “Fringe”....the ABC series “Lost”....[etc.]

...But the downside is evident to anyone who measures the gradual ratings declines for an ever-more-fragmented TV landscape. Advertisers pay for air time using ratings that include only the first three days of DVR playback...under the assumption that the ads become less relevant over time [&] that most viewers will watch shows by then. As a result, networks are looking to schedule programming that can encourage live viewing.

...On Tuesday, Ben Silverman...co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, called “The Jay Leno Show” a “killer app,” not only because of the comedian’s talents, but because “you want to watch it that night, and you want to watch it the next....”

...Mr. Silverman predicted that the program would be “totally DVR-proof.”

[But] “[t]here’s no way to schedule around DVR viewing,” said Dawn Ostroff, CW’s president of entertainment.

...Due in part to time-shifting, many viewers, especially...younger ones who are prized by advertisers, do not know what is on at 10 p.m....they increasingly do not care. There is a simple test of this scheduling shift: ...ask a friend what time “Dateline NBC” is broadcast. The hard-to-remember answer is Friday nights at 10.

CBS and ABC are expected to [both] counter-program NBC’s 10 p.m. talk show with dramas....[and continue to win the time slot}