DVRs Now in Over One of Every Five U.S. Households

Combination with HDTV Pushing DVRs into Higher Income Homes

DURHAM, NH — New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that over one in every five households in the United States now have a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) – up from about one in every thirteen households just two years ago.

Other key findings include:

• The mean household income of DVR owners is 33% above average
• 53% of DVR owners say that they have an HDTV set
• 45% of DVR owners record five or fewer programs per week
• While 84% of DVR owners rate the ability to skip commercials as very important, just 8% of DVR owners say it is the greatest benefit of having a DVR

These findings are based on a survey of 1,300 households throughout the United States, and are part of LRG’s study, On-Demand TV 2007: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs. This is LRG’s sixth annual study of this topic.

“The number of US households with DVRs has rapidly increased over the past few years. Fueled by a continued push from cable and DBS providers offering combination HD/DVR set-top boxes, LRG forecasts that the number of US households with DVRs will grow to over 60 million by the end of 2011,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for Leichtman Research Group, Inc. “The growth of DVRs does not mean that the era of live TV viewing has ended – LRG estimates that 95% of all TV viewing in the US is still of live TV.”

On-Demand TV 2007: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs is based on a telephone survey of 1,300 adults age 18+ from throughout the continental US in households with a TV set. The survey was conducted in June-July 2007. The random sample of respondents was distributed to best reflect the demographic and geographic make-up of the US. The overall sample has a statistical margin of error of +/- 2.7%.