DVRs becoming mainstream in US
October 18, 2011
Forty-four per cent of TV households in the United States have at least one Digital Video Recorder (DVR), and one-third of DVR households have more than one DVR -representing 14 per cent of all households having multiple DVRs according to recent consumer research from Leichtman Research Group (LRG). In 2005, just 8 per cent of all households had a DVR.
LRG reports that in addition, 73 per cent of all digital cable subscribers have at some stage used Video on-Demand (VoD), with 87 per cent of this group having watched an on-Demand programme or movie in the past month. Overall, about 62 per cent of digital cable subscribers used on-Demand in the past month compared to 52 per cent last year.
Other findings from LRG’s study – On-Demand TV 2011: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs – indicate that:
- 80 per cent of DVR owners rate the service 8-10 (on a 1-10 scale with 10 being excellent) – compared to 80 per cent last year, and 77 per cent two years ago
- 62 per cent of cable VOD users rate the service 8-10 – compared to 60 per cent last year, and 55 per cent two years ago
- 74 per cent of premium on-Demand (POD) users rate VOD 8-10 – compared to 54 per cent of non-POD users
- 63 per cent of all Netflix subscribers rate the Watch Instantly feature 8-10 (on a 1-10 scale with 10 being an extremely important feature or benefit of the Netflix service) – compared to 48 per cent last year, and 37 per cent two years ago
- 20 per cent of Netflix subscribers use Watch Instantly daily, and 57 per cent weekly – last year 10 per cent used Watch Instantly daily, and 43 per cent weekly
- 78 per cent of Watch Instantly users use it to watch movies and TV shows on a TV set
- 86 per cent of Netflix households subscribe to a multi-channel video service, and 43 per cent with a multi-channel video service subscribe to a premium service – similar to all households in the sample, and similar to Netflix households last year
“On-Demand TV viewing in the forms of DVR and VOD, as well as Netflix streaming, have significantly increased in terms of usage and popularity over the past few years,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “Yet these on-Demand TV platforms remain largely complementary to traditional TV services and viewing, with about 90 per cent of all TV viewing in the US still being via live TV.”