US audiences appear far more eager to download television programmes that contain advertising than to pay for versions of those same shows without it, according to network executives.
The findings are amongthe first examining viewers'habits since networks broke with tradition last year and began making their programmesavailable to consumers over a variety of emerging digital platforms, including websites, cable and satellite video-on-demand, and Apple's iTunes store. The data are expected to guidemedia companies' thinking as they refine their business models.
"Right now, the early returns are telling us that the advertising model is working better," Les Moonves, CBS chief executive, said at a conference hosted by consultancy PwC.
"People would rather sit through the ads than pay 99 cents or $1.99."
Since CBS and other US networks began offering their programmes on new digital devices, they have offered viewers a choice: they can pay 99 cents to $1.99 for episodes that do not contain advertising, or download free programmes with commercials that cannot be skipped with the use of digital video recorders and similar technologies.
Although CBS declined to disclose numbers, recent figures released by Walt Disney's ABC network revealed a dramatic difference.
In May alone, ABC served more than 11m free downloads of hit programmes such as Lost from its ABC.com website. By contrast, ABC and its sister networks - ESPN and the Disney Channel - combined have sold only about 6m downloads through iTunes since lastOctober.
Not only were consumers willing to watch downloaded programmes that contained advertising, according to ABC, but 87 per cent were also able to recall the messages they had seen.
Those statistics should offer encouragement to the broadcast networks at a time when digital video recorders and other devices are allowing viewers to skipcommercials, a trend that is raising concerns about their business.
At the PwC conference yesterday, Tim Hanlon, a senior vice-president at Ventures, Denuo, a unit of the Publicis advertising group, suggested the advertising-supported television model was prevailing because additional charges for video-on-demand, high-speed internet and other media services were beginning to tax consumers.
"Advertising can clearly help keep those costs in check," Mr Hanlon said.
