66% of Viewers Fast-Forward Them : Ads on Rented Videos Get Bad Reviews

Consumers have had it with commercials on the videocassettes they rent, even as more car and soft-drink spots are being spliced onto movie tapes.

Sixty-six percent of VCR owners said they fast-forward through commercials at the beginning of rented movies, according to a Nielsen Media Research study released at the eighth annual Video Software Dealers Assn. convention this week.

The study further found that more than 60% of those surveyed said they zip through coming attractions.

Despite the renters’ unhappiness, though, the commercials will not be going away anytime soon.

MCA Home Videos’ coming release of “The Land Before Time” will carry a Pizza Hut pitch. “Rain Man” features a Buick plug, “A Fish Called Wanda” hypes Schweppes and “Young Guns” hawks Nestle.

And a number of promoters have created a ruckus at this year’s convention by offering to open prerecorded cassettes and attach commercials for local merchants.

Video Air Time of Midland, Tex., will put spots for florists, bowling alleys, attorneys and department stores on any cassette where there is room.

Video Air Time charges about $20 per commercial per cassette, of which the store owner receives about $1 a tape.

The disapproval rate reflected in the new Nielsen study comes as a major reversal from a Nielsen study released in April. That survey showed that 95% of households renting the “A Fish Called Wanda” video watched the Schweppes commercial.

Besides its findings on fast-forwarding commercials, the new Nielsen study showed that although video rental volume continues to grow, customers are looking for other ways to spend time, including other leisure activities, business, education or regular television.