DVRs Approaching Critical Mass, Finally

As far as important industry milestones go, the one announced by Interpublic's Magna Global unit, that DVRs are finally poised to reach the 50% mark -- a level often thought of as critical mass for a mass medium like television -- may seem a bit anticlimactic, and just goes to show that big industrial shifts sometimes are more evolutionary, than they are revolutionary.

In fact, Magna estimates that milestone will not be crossed for another five years, but its year-end 2016 forecast is the first time the ad industry has had an official half-way mark for the dreaded devices, which have been Madison Avenue's main nemesis for nearly a decade. DVRs, Magna's Brian Wieser said in his understated fashion, will officially cross the 50% penetration level at year-end 2016, up from his previous estimate of 49%. But the significance of that milestone now seems more of a whimper than a bang, and certainly not the sonic "boom" many on Madison Avenue had feared a decade ago when Michael Lewis' cover story on the New York Times Magazine announced that the end of TV advertising was near. Not nearly, as it turns out.