As of March 2009, 30.6 percent of households in Nielsen’s National People Meter Panel have a DVR, up significantly from just 12.3 percent in January 2007.
A key factor to this expansion is the integration of DVRs into cable and DBS set top boxes: 55 percent of DVR homes had it as part of their cable box and 40 percent had a DVR within their DBS box. Just 5 percent had a standalone DVR. And as households recognize the convenience DVR offers, a growing number are becoming multi-DVR households. 25 percent of homes had two, while 5 percent had three or more.
Of Nielsen’s 56 Metered Markets, the top ten for DVR penetration are:
Rank Market % Penetration 1 San Diego 37.7% 2 Austin 37.4% 3 Dallas-Ft. Worth 37.2% 4 Orlando-Daytona Bch-Melbrn 36.8% 5 Los Angeles 36.2% 6 Sacramento-Stktn-Modesto 35.2% 7 San Francisco-Oak-San Jose 34.1% 8 San Antonio 34.0% 9 Raleigh-Durham 34.0% 10 Tampa-St. Pete 33.5% Source: The Nielsen Company
You can download the entire report here.
via Nielsen Wire.
We have 4 HD-DVRs integrated with our set-top boxes through Verizon Fios. We love it.
I hate DVRs. They are little more than a socially-acceptable form of piracy. Watch the show, but skip the ads so the networks don’t get paid to sustain the show. Brilliant.
How come there hasn’t been any kind of movement by the networks to ban the ability to skip ads? Does anyone think there will be some kind of movement once the adoption rate is high enough?
(Full disclosure: No, I don’t work for a network. I’m just a software developer who started hating piracy a while ago when it began happening to me.)
Mike, that battle was lost when the industry took on the VCR business in court in the 80s and lost. The music industry thought it won the mp3 battle, but lost the war. The better answer is for a TV network to make money despite DVRs with in-program product placement, the web and other creative income sources. Fighting the DVR business is a no-win for the networks. They need to adapt to survive.
Lets face it folks…the shift is on, and its all good. Remember back in the depression when radio and print were it? TV came and I am certain radio was panicking. TV will not go away. They will find a way to shift their thinking, and survive. Digital media is replacing the traditional media sources as we mobilize, and the new “super-consumers” of today are demanding greater technology streams and creativity to be reached!
Althought it’s nice to skip the ads and somewhat warranted because of the barrage of poor advertising, I use DVR for convenience. I can’t be home when the shows I enjoy are on, I need to watch them at my leisure. If the advertising is compelling enough, I may still watch it. I sometimes find myself stopping to watch something if it’s good enough, but it’s pretty rare. This is where in show messaging is more relevant and creating advertising that is content based that engages me rather than the same old same old. I can get through 2.5 hours of programming in a little over an hour. It’s about convenience for me. I agree with David, they will, and are, finding more ways to generate the income. Hitting the coveted target demographics is fading, that’s what the huge strike was about, is people getting paid for all the interactive content and programming that is becoming a huge part of the networks.
Eventually the DVRs will be designed to provide ad space in the video recorded (likely a banner at top or bottom of the screen) which can’t be fast forwarded or gotten rid of without hacking the appliance.
It’s the obvious way to go. The content providers can provide the ad and share the revenue with the content deliverers.
I agree that DVRs are convenient (I own one myself, although only so my roommate can record her shows), but I don’t like how they let you skip the commercials. If they only let you resume your video feed at the part you stopped watching, then never let you skip commercials, I think that’d be perfect. That way you can watch the shows whenever you want (convenience), but the networks can still get paid since they can be assured that you had to watch the commercials. That would fix so many problems with shows being hurt by being scheduled up against more popular shows or on Fridays.
I totally forgot about VCRs though. I haven’t owned one of those in a long time. It’s interesting that the networks chose to sue the companies over existing devices instead of attempting to pass legislation to ban certain features in future devices. That’d of course just create a black market, but it’d also be a smaller market.
Oh well, whatever. It’s not my problem.
@RSH said, “Eventually the DVRs will be designed to provide ad space in the video recorded (likely a banner at top or bottom of the screen) which can’t be fast forwarded or gotten rid of without hacking the appliance.”
Heh, not bloody likely as long as there is competition between the makers of recording devices, all it would take is one holdout for the idea to fail and they still make more money by making devices that people actually want to buy rather than things the media industry thinks we should be buying.
Love the new generation of high-end tvs with built in media players making piracy easier than ever.
Of course there is also the old discussion whether people are going to use DVRs when the tv is connected to the internet.
http://www.cedailynews.com/2009/04/cea-demand-for-internet-ready-tv-is-high-growing.html
WA guess: in the future, instead of episodes being broadcast, you will have to download the episodes of “tv” shows to your computer or media box from the networks directly. They will require you to watch ads first before you can download. This is how many websites already watch. Want to see the highlights of the Celts-Bulls 3OT game last night? First you have to sit through an “un-fastforwardable” ad for a men’s razor. Happened to me earlier today on ESPN.com.
Seems perfectly fair to me.
I have five DVRS and all most never watch a live program from the beginning. I now have one Tivo DVR and four from Directv, the main difference is the Tivo allows your to fast-forward but you still SEE the commercials, the Directv DVRS have a skip function but it is always off a little requiring an effort to start wtching at the correct point. With my Tivo unit I am more aware of the commercials than I would be if I was watching the show live because I have to stop the fast forwarding at the correct spot. My point is the fast-forwarding function MAKES your give commercials your attention and IMO it may actually help the broadcasters to keep your attention. Everyone I know seems to be channel changing during the commercials and not actually give their attention to the commercials. I generally use my Tivo on the HD or digitial over the air networks.
save Sci Fi, you could easily program your TiVo to be able to skip as well. Just Google “TiVo 30 Second Skip”.