DVRs Now in Over One-Third of U.S. Households

Thursday, September 10th, 2009
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On-Demand TV Services Continue to Complement Traditional TV Viewing

DURHAM, NH — New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that 36% of TV households in the United States have at least one Digital Video Recorder (DVR) — an increase from just 8% four years ago.

In addition, 63% of all digital cable subscribers have ever used Video on-Demand (VOD), with 88% of this group having watched an on-Demand program or movie in the past month. Overall, about twice as many cable subscribers have used VOD as four years ago.

Other related findings include:

  • 65% of DVR owners, and 54% of digital cable VOD users, agree (8-10 on a 10 point scale) that they usually watch recorded DVR or on-Demand programs when there is nothing on regularly scheduled TV that they want to watch
  • In households that have both a DVR and are VOD users, 57% start by watching live TV — in households that just have a DVR, 68% start with live TV
  • 44% of DVR owners record five or fewer programs per week
  • 85% would recommend their DVR service to a friend (8-10), and 77% highly rate their DVR (8-10)
  • 68% of VOD users who also have a DVR agree (8-10) that their TV service is better because they have both services

These findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,300 households from throughout the United States and are part of a new LRG study, On-Demand TV 2009: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs. This is LRG’s eighth annual study on this topic.

“Driven by cable, DBS, and Telco video providers pushing DVRs into the home as part of a combined HD/DVR set-top box, LRG estimates that DVRs will be in about 71 million households at the end of 2013 — double the number of households with DVRs at the end of 2008,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “LRG forecasts that DVR and VOD’s share of total TV viewing time in the US will increase from about 8% today to 18% at the end of 2013.”