The way viewers choose to watch and catch-up with their favourite television shows is changing and as a consequence so too is the manner in which they absorb and take notice of advertisements. With the infiltration of Digital Video Recorders into the mainstream and the ever-increasing popularity of online catch-up software, audiences have never had it so easy when it comes to skimming through commercial breaks and racing to the juicy action.

It was obvious that such a state of affairs would not and could not go unnoticed by the advertising industry for long. Indeed, as suspected the very technology that has granted freedom to users of DVRs is now to be used by broadcasters to air commercials during programmes. At the vanguard of the revolution is ITV who recently announced the trialling of ‘automatically placed overlay advertising.’  Making use of complex computer algorithms to find clear space in video footage, such as blue sky or blank walls, it allows the subliminal dispersal of on-screen logos and messages.

The technology, which was developed for ITV by Keystream, a US-based company, is currently being tested in news footage on the broadcaster’s ITV Local website. If it is well received, and if regulations permit it, ITV hopes to transfer it to the television screen. Under current Ofcom rules, the practice would not be permissible; however, with a shake-up planned it is not improbable that such technology could be widely used in the near future.

Given the results of a recent study by McKinsey & Co the need to fast track such systems is rapidly becoming a necessity; by 2010 it is thought that traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective as it was in 1990. They are bleak statistics for companies already facing the prospect of a global recession.

ITV’s head of future technology, Simon Fell, has publicly stated that he feels the system has ‘a lot of potential.’ He added: ‘If there is a scene in a programme where there's time, then it could give us a chance to get an ad away.
‘But obviously on television you won't be seeing one of these appearing at a crunch point in a drama. It [the technology] looks at moments in the video where it finds segments that are big enough to get a non-moving logo in.’

In the United States broadcasters have developed a technique known as a “speed bump”, in which advertisers buy the presence of their logo or message during programme breaks, so that viewers who fast-forward still see the branding.

Tackling the issue from a different angle, TiVo, the leading DVR system in the US, have pioneered ‘opt-in advertisements’ where viewers are offered the opportunity to create user profiles. With the average consumer more open to viewing adverts directed at their specific hobbies and interests the technology is aimed at giving advertisers a more targeted and interested pool of potential buyers while attempting to deter users from immediately reaching for the fast-forward button the moment a commercial break begins. Although results show a low uptake, the 5-15% who do participate represent a targeted group which greatly interest advertisers.

Conservatives are already predicting a backlash if the new technologies go nationwide on this side of the pond and with online technology messageboards rife with brooding anger they have good reason for forecasting such negativity. British audiences unlike their American counterparts have been spared blatant product placement under current regulations but will, whether they like it or not, have to accept that change is on the horizon.