Influx

Having recently acquired a personal video recorder, I find myself using the time-shift facility when watching commercial TV.

I
start watching a programme around 15 minutes after it has commenced
broadcasting – by doing this, I am able to fast forward through the
adverts. Am I breaking my “contract” with the broadcaster by not
watching its adverts, and do I miss out on some products that might be
of value to me?

Paul, Dorset

Dear Paul,

If everybody
did as you do, advertisers would give up, and broadcasters would have
to find a new source of income. That need not concern you, however. If
you time-shift and others do not, no harm is done. And if they all
time-shift, you’d be a fool to do otherwise, wouldn’t you?

The
more pertinent question is whether these adverts are worth your time.
If you earn £40,000 a year, then you make £5 in the time it takes you
to watch 15 minutes of advertising. This is a rough guide to the
opportunity cost of your time.

If the adverts are enjoyable or
informative, perhaps that is a price worth paying, but it seems
unlikely. While an advertisement in the Financial Times might alert you
to a sophisticated product, mainstream television adverts are more
likely to remind you that actors can be paid to hold fizzy drinks, or
that when a car is filmed from a helicopter and driven by a stuntman
along a remote mountain road, it looks rather cool.

I recommend,
then, that you watch a few advertising breaks while keeping a running
tally: the cost of time spent watching adverts versus your estimate of
the benefits thus derived. I suspect you will find that time shifted is
time saved.