DVR Service Soars In U.S.

by Wayne Friedman , January 2, 2015

DVR service is still growing in U.S. TV homes — even versus all newer digital TV platforms.

A new survey says 62% of U.S. TV homes subscribing to a pay TV service have a digital video recorder — up from 41% from five years ago, this, according to Leichtman Research Group.

Overall, 76% of U.S. TV homes have either a DVR, use video on demand or have a subscription to Netflix. Twenty-six percent have two services, and 11% have all three. Research comes from a November 2014 telephone survey of 1,233 adults age 18 and older among continental U.S. TV homes.

Leichtman says whole-home DVR usage is growing. Now 55% of TV homes with a DVR now have DVR in more than one TV set, up from 28% five years ago.

Survey also notes 36% of pay-TV subscribers have Netflix, this compared to 48% of non-pay TV subscribers. Now 36% of Netflix subscribers stream video daily, and 72% stream it weekly. This is up from 10% in daily usage, and 43% in weekly usage from four years ago.

Video-on-demand continues to grow as well: 59% of all cable subscribers have used VOD — compared to 46% in 2009, and 10% in 2004.

"Watching TV" photo from Shutterstock.

dvrs, streaming, trends, tv

2 comments about "DVR Service Soars In U.S.".

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Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, January 2, 2015 at 3:32 p.m.
Who remembers when they watched commercials? Even in live sports you can watch something else during breaks without missing the almost-live feed.
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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics, January 5, 2015 at 8:55 a.m.

Doug, while per- commercial viewing rates have declined due to the increase of ad clutter and the availability of "avoidance" options----many more channels to switch to, DVR editing, etc.----a lot of people still watch commercials as is evidenced, if nothing else, by their ability to recall ad content when questioned by researchers.