DVR owners watch ads! Shocking!

+ Nielsen releases data claiming people who own DVRs still watch an average of 2/3 of the ads shown during programming they play back.

One big reason is that many people with DVRs still tune in to watch about half of their shows at the scheduled start times, meaning they must sit through commercials.

And even when people watch recorded shows later, many are not fast-forwarding through the ads. On average, Nielsen found, DVR owners watch 40 percent of commercials that they could skip over.

"People are actually playing back more of the commercials than we thought," said Steve Sternberg, executive vice president and director of audience analysis at Magna Global Media Research, an ad buying agency. "People are buying DVRs, not because they want to time-shift all of their viewing and skip all commercials, but because they want to time-shift some of their viewing."

People who have DVRs often insist that they never watch commercials, as if skipping commercials is a badge of honor. And while it is true that some DVR owners probably watch no commercials, others never touch the fast-forward button. Most people are probably between those two extremes.