People With DVRs Don't Buy Them to Skip Commercials

...or so says ABC's President of Ad Sales Mike Shaw.

"I'm not so sure that the whole issue really is one of commercial avoidance," Shaw said. "It really is a matter of convenience--so you don't miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we're just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I'm not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don't fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can't skip commercials."

While you're wiping off your monitor, I'll tell you how I came across this story. Was it my subscription to Mediapost's newsletters that led me to this story? No. It was TotalFark, which linked to the story with an "UNLIKELY" tag.

If that's not a signal that the broadcast model is about to become a lot less important, I don't know what is.