Audio News for December 14, 2005

DVRs Not Killing Commercials – Executives from the major networks announced last month that their research has shown that people using TiVos and other DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) not only watch more TV but some even watch the commercials rather than scooting by them with the advance or fast-forward buttons. The data revealed people with DVRs spend 12% more time watching TV and 50% not only watched the commercials but also recalled the ads they saw. A recent Nielsen survey showed that 90% of DVR owners still watch shows at their designated broadcast time, commercials and all. [Ah, but what percentage hit the Mute on their remotes?…Ed.]  8% of American homes now have DVRs and that number is expected to triple in the next five years.  So the early market research that saw DVRs as the death of commercials should be erased and recorded over.

Paramount Will Buy DreamWorks – Independent film studio DreamWorks SKG Inc. – founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen 11 years ago – will be purchased by Paramount Pictures for $1.6 billion in a deal that is designed to aid both financially-troubled firms. The DreamWorks film library will be sold by Paramount to help finance the deal.  DreamWorks Animation SKG is not included in the purchase.

Big Changes at Philips – The CEO of Royal Philips Electronics in Amsterdam, Geard Kleisterlee, recently explained the company’s move away from consumer electronics.  He has jettisoned and outsourced Philip’s entire audio components division, acquired hospital-products companies and cut off investments in household goods.  He reports Philips looked at how consumer electronics would look a few years out and felt that with digitalization and the convergence of telecommunications and consumer electronics the industry would look more like the personal computer industry than traditional consumer electronics. As a fully-integrated manufacturer they felt they had to get out of that.

Surround 2005 Conference Opens This Week – The Seventh Annual International Surround Conference & Showcase takes place in Beverly Hills at the Beverly Hilton Hotel this Thursday and Friday December 15 & 16. It is the annual gathering of the world’s top producers of surround sound, engineers, talent and executives. The Surround Music Awards will be presented by DTS, in categories including Best Made-For-Surround Title, Most Adventurous Mix, Best Standard Resolution Title, Best Multichannel Reissue, and Best Mix – Orchestral. Among the scheduled conference sessions will be: New Optical Media, Keynote speech by Tomlinson Holman, New Approaches in Surround for Film, Perspectives in Surround Mixing, Surround Case Study: Elton John Reissues, The Lowdown on Upmixing, and Capturing Live Performance for Surround. Sponsors of the event include DTS, Dolby, Yamaha, NHT, MartinSound and GC Pro.