It’s no surprise. Time shifting is for the young. A study by the Nielsen company found that younger adult TV viewers are 2.5 times more likely to timeshift than older viewers.

In fact, 50% of older viewers said would “do nothing or wait for reruns” for shows they missed. Do nothing? Do they not care about the latest Lost or Heroes episodes?

And think about it. Reruns? How often do you keep track of reruns and when they might come back on the air? Nobody likes reruns, unless you happen to miss an episode? And unless you’re some sort of fanatic (or a younger TV viewer) you’ll probably be OK with missing a show.

In fact, reruns are dying. They’re being replaced by DVRs, iTunes/iPods, Start Over on-demand features on cable and streaming via the Internet.

It’s almost as if the TV networks don’t really care about repeats, since they are putting recently aired shows on the Internet for free. Or by paid download via iTunes (or even NetFlix, which is where I go to catch up on Heroes).

Anyway, younger viewers are more hip to technology, have more time to waste hunting down their favorite shows and have grown up with online TV viewing.

The study also found that 50% went to ABC.com more than any other TV site when looking for catching up on shows. NBC.com and CBS.com were next.

Bonus: Nielsen’s PDF of the Study Results.

With the growing number of people using DVRs–about 20% in the U.S.–it’s not surprising that advertisers are worried that TV viewers won’t watch their ads. In the last few years, advertisers have dreamt up a number of different tactics in order to entice viewers into watching, rather than fast forwarding, their ads. For example:

Superimposed Ads. Tivo started a campaign where they would paste a superimposed ad over an ad that was being fast-forwarded. The result was that you could clearly see the superimposed text ad, while fast forwarding through all the action. Tivo subscribers, however, reacted negatively to this, probably because they felt they were paying Tivo a monthly fee for avoiding advertising and having TV their way. After trying this in early January 2007, Tivo has stopped this practice. But who knows it may come back.

One Static Image. Some advertisers are targeting fast-forwarding DVR users directly by airing commercials that feature just one static image for 30 seconds. Fox did this in 2006 by creating an ad that just had the show logo on the screen (for fast forwarders) as well as people talking in the background (for those who actually watch commercials).

Subliminal Ads. Okay, they’re not really subliminal commercials (that went out in the 70’s allegedly) but they’re ads that flash really quick messages, that only fast forwarders can view. Viewed at normal speed, the images flash very quickly and don’t interrupt the commercial. Viewed while fast forwarding and the commercial is supposed to evoke curiosity and make viewers pay attention.

On-Screen Animated Ads. Many TV networks avoid any tricks during the commercial breaks and do them during a show. Networks do screen animations for future shows while a show is in progress. Sure it’s annoying and distracting, but I think this works the best of all because it catches viewers when they have their full attention–during the actual program.

Hybrid Ads or Content Wraps. These ads look like the show you’re watching, such the name content wraps. But they’re just clever ads. In a recent Mythbusters show there was a short content wrap showing an animated character asking another whether it was true that Guinness beer only had 125 calories. Another character verified this “myth” and a voice over came on saying it was “brought to you by Guinness”. Yes, this is awkward for both viewers and the actors/characters. It’s somewhat dishonest, in that you think you’re watching the show and you’re suddenly in the middle of a sales pitch. It’s a shocking moment that manages to break the spell and magic of TV viewing.

View the Guinness/Mythbuster clip here:

Best Week Ever did one a few weeks ago. It was a commercial for–Uh, I don’t even remember!–that featured some of the Best Week Ever performers/comedians and appeared right before the show went to the commercial break. It was effective to me because I love the show and the comedians and thought this was part of the show, not another lame commercials. But ultimately it was ineffective in getting me to remember what they were advertising.

Interestingly, viewers that saw the Guinness ad on Mythbusters remembered the Guinness brand 41% more often than a traditional Guinness ad. A research company called IAG did an evaluation of 1,000 hybrid ads and found that they generated a 30% higher brand recall than traditional ads for the same product.

In fact reality shows are one of the top places where you can find in-show product tie-ins. Shows like America’s Next Top Model, Top Chef, Survivor frequently feature products during the show–like hair care products, new frozen food dishes and cars. These advertisers not only get plus during the show, but also have buys for 30-second spots.

In fact, IAG said the highest-scoring hybrid ad was during America’s Next Top Model, which featured Herbal Essences hair product, with over 40% of people were able to recall the name of the brand compared to 28% viewing the regular ad.

Experts say ads of these types will grow especially as the usage of DVRs increase.

In filings with the SEC, EchoStar said it was changing its name to DISH Network Corporation. It’s also expected to spin off its set-top box business as well as its Sling Media division to a new company called EchoStar Holding Company.

This makes things a bit easier to keep track of, since most people know the brand (Dish Network) rather than the company behind it (EchoStar).

Meanwhile, AT&T is supposedly still looking to acquire the DISH Network Corporation but no announcements have been made yet. This is one rumor that everyone expects, but that hasn’t happened yet.

A survey by ChoiceStream found that consumers are comfortable watching TV programming on computers and mobile devices instead of TV sets.  ChoiceStream found that 55% of Internet users that watch TV also watch video on devices other than their TV sets.

That’s not too surprising since consumers are driving the market. Once the TV networks start offering their shows on the Internet and in different formats, consumers will respond. It’s really just the networks giving consumers what they want.

After all, consumers are currently using work-arounds for lots of things they can’t get yet. They download shows online, encode them for their iPods or use Slingboxes to watch their DVR recorded shows on the road. People want content in many different formats.

Other highlights:

The Younger Are More Comfortable. Not surprisingly, younger consumers (18 to 24) are leading the way with 66% saying they watching TV on other devices.

TV Programming Rules. Most interesting of all is that 65% of consumers watch TV programming rather than user-generated video (39%).

Computers Are Most Popular Device. Most consumers (36%) watch content on their computers more than mobile devices

Four Hours A Week. 33% watch at least four hours every week

Many Will Watch More Internet or Mobile Video. 20% said they will watch more TV away from their living rooms in the next six months.

They Watch Commercials, Don’t They? The survey determined that 23% of viewers that record TV shows take the time to watch commercials when they view the recorded program.

A Reuters story says that TV viewership will grow faster than Internet video through 2012. Consulting company Bain and Co. said that viewers in the U.S. viewers will spend nearly two more hours per week watching television on average will spend fueled mostly by VOD and DVR usage.

Meanwhile, Internet use at home will rise by “less than half an hour per week.”

David Sanderson, a consultant at Bain said that this is sobering for TV networks since they’re spending lots of money on Internet initiatives, like Hulu, NBC Direct and TheDaiyShow.com, for example. He noted that there are technology and capacity constraints right now, as well as revenue models, when it comes to Internet video.