DVRs Now in 40% of U.S. TV Households

Over Half of Digital Cable Subscribers use VOD Monthly

DURHAM, NH — New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that 40% of TV households in the United States have at least one Digital Video Recorder (DVR) — an increase from just 8% five years ago.

In addition, 64% of all digital cable subscribers have ever used Video on-Demand (VOD), with 83% of this group having watched an on-Demand program or movie in the past month. Overall, 52% of digital cable subscribers used on-Demand in the past month. Five years ago, 50% of digital cable subscribers had ever used VOD.

Other related findings include:

• 34% of DVR users have more than one DVR
• The mean household income of DVR users is 34% above non-DVR users
• The mean household income of cable VOD users is 10% above average
• Netflix subscribers have a mean annual household income 24% above average
• 87% of Netflix households subscribe to a multi-channel video service, and 34% subscribe to a premium service — similar to all households in the sample, and similar to Netflix households last year
• 60% of Netflix subscribers used the Watch Instantly feature in the past month
• 2% of all households use Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature daily, and an additional 6% use it weekly

These findings are based on a telephone survey of 1,300 households from throughout the United States and are part of LRG’s study, On-Demand TV 2010: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs. This is LRG’s ninth annual study on this topic.

“DVR and VOD users have significantly increased over the past five years, yet over 90% of all TV viewing in the US is still of live TV,” 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 less than 10% today to about 22% by the end of 2015.”