nothing new here for regular readers, really, but USA Today is spinning the season ending DVR data:
New DVR data for the just-ended TV season may give some pause to networks fretting about declining ratings.At least 30% of viewers forLost, The Office and Heroes were procrastinators, watching either later that night or up to seven days after the programs first aired.
While “live” audiences for most shows continue to dwindle, delayed viewership from the devices, which digitally record programs and store them on a hard drive for later viewing, is filling some of that void. Nationally, 31% of homes had them in May, up from 25% a year earlier.
Many of the top shows also are the most frequently recorded: Nearly 5 million of Idol’s 26 million viewers on Tuesdays delayed the show, most for just a few hours.
No surprise there either, far and away, American Idol had the most “same night DVR viewing though the % of same night DVR viewing was a bit lower than last year.
Among new shows, Fringe was recorded most often, by one in four of its 11.6 million viewers. CBS’ The Mentalist counted 2.7 million recorders, but that was just 14% of its total.
But recording activity has as much to do with time slots as programs. DVRs are used most often at 9 p.m. ET/PT Thursdays, where CSI, Grey’s and The Office are among the top 10 shows stored for later viewing. And Friday, a night out for target younger viewers, led 1.5 million fans of Fox’s Dollhouse, a third of its total audience, to press the record button. (The show won a reprieve and was renewed for a second season — in the same slot.)
We can be sure Dollhouse fans will keep a close eye on those numbers again in the coming season. Though I still don’t think those numbers had a lot to do with the show being renewed, because those DVR viewers are harder to monetize with advertising revenue. I’d expect that the ratio of viewing will be the same again this coming season. But if the numbers are generally the same and it gets renewed (or even a back nine), I might start drinking the “DVRs saved Dollhouse!” Kool-Aide myself.
More on USA Today.
Just repowered my series2 Tivo DVR after a long time and that means I would most likely stop watching a lot of shows “live”
well Thursday i will know be whacing three shows at the same at 9 CSI fringe and Greys and fridays i will be another night to dvr Southland Ugly Betty and Meduim all on at 9 so of coruse i am going to tape them and watch one on regual tv
It appears that that article only takes original broadcasts into account, so we finally have a list without all of those pesky CBS repeats making it seem like Desperae Housewives is the most-watched scripted show.
I’m in the middle of building a new Home Theater PC. Right now its got 1TB of storage and 2HDTV tuners to record TV using Windows 7 Media Center. When completed its going to have 4 HDTV tuners and 2 TB of storage, and the ability for others in my house to watch from their PC’s or gaming systems.
I’m not a fan of watching TV on the schedule of the networks. I live a busy life and for me too many shows fall on the same night and times, for instance Monday night means picking and choosing what to watch, so for me using my HTPC I can record 4 shows at once and watch them at my time, inlcuding one of them live.
If I miss something there is always HULU, which without it I would never have seen the show Legend of the Seeker.
Back to the old days, where one company sponsored an entire episode – you can’t fast forward past what your mind knows *g*
how many fringe dvrs were done to catch American idol overages?
Corey, it seems like it is far easier to set your DVR to always record Idol longer than record an extra program just to catch any overages. Also remember, this measures VIEWING and not recording and this data is all adjusted for the actual program times, so none of the viewing measured for Fringe would’ve been people watching Idol.
Some guy named John: Your media centre sounds great! And I found Legend of the Seeker through internet viewing as well.
Robert, you dog, you got my hopes up with that headline.
Unfortunately USAT doesn’t actually compare DVR viewing to online viewing in the story because that would ruin the narrative that TV is being swallowed by the internet.
TV execs have been nervous nellies for a long time. VCRs operate with exactly the same principle as videotape or magnetic audiotape for that matter, which has been around since the 1930’s. Yet they were not allowed until the 1970’s and not mass-marketed until the mid 1980’s. Color TV was possible in the 1950’s, but NBC scientists I believe had the patent on it and refused to give up on that until they negotiated a deal with the other networks, one of the reasons ABC got shut out of so many local affiliates and has been playing catch-up ever since. Maybe DVR is the new technology the networks couldn’t refuse, because skipping ads is an idea too big to fail … smiley face.
Interesting that fringe was the most recorded new program, considering that it aired all season with limited commercial interruption. would lead you to conclude that convenience was the motivation behind the dvr use, and not commercial avoidance.