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I always warn my friends: Don’t buy a DVR! Especially if you’re addicted to TV. Because you’ll never want to leave the house.

That’s my warning to people because I’m addicted to TV. I can watch pretty much anything like random home decorating shows, any given episode of Mythbusters, UFC fights that I know I’ve already watched years ago, countdown shows on VH1 or E! Plus I closely follow lots of prime time shows like American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, 24, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Lost, or Heroes. I barely have time to do anything else.

I bought my first DVR, a Panasonic ShowStopper ReplayTV, around 2002. Immediately, my addiction to TV grew even scarier. I watched shows I never could before. Plus I watched any random show suggested by my DVR. I didn’t care.

So I scoffed when I saw this story saying that DVRs increase prime-time TV viewing by 3%. My viewing overall, has increased, oh, 100% probably.
This data is from Nielsen Media Research, who also found that those that use DVRs the most are middle-income women aged 18 to 49, who record and watch 26 hours of TV a week. The demographic with the fewest uses of DVRs are men 18 to 34.

Other factoids:

• Mid-range users of DVRs watch more TV overall than the average person; about one-third of their TV viewing being time-shifted.
• Light DVR (70 percent of all DVR households) watch less TV than the average viewer. Most in this group have higher incomes (over $100,000 a year) are are likely to own an HDTV set.
• Most recorded shows are top-rated scripted dramas, as well as high profile reality shows
• Heavily recorded daytimes shows are soap operas and talk shows like Oprah.

Other than the 3% increase finding, the second most interesting result from this study is that women use DVRs as much as they do. This is s somewhat surprising since DVRs were initially only for the tech-savvy geeks, which were usually men or those in the tech field. Now, I think this shift in demographics means that DVRs are finally hitting the mainstream. They’re getting easier to use and are more popular, perhaps as more people shift to HDTV.

What do think?

[tags] DVR, Nielsen, Tivo, HDTV, HD, HD DVR [/tags]

A survey by some company called Ensequence found that TV viewers want to interact with their TVs. In fact, 70% said that they would consider signing up to another TV provider if they offered advanced interactivity at no extra charge. Apparently, people aren’t just talking back to their TVs–they’re searching on-screen guides, viewing on-demand programming or using DVRs.

• 72% of viewers watching reality shows want the opportunity to interact with TV
• 65% said the same of sporting events
• 66% wanted to interact with commercials.

People should get ready for interactivity because it’s coming via IPTV–that’s essentially TV broadcasts delivered over managed IP networks.  Here in the U.S., AT&T and Verizon have been rolling out IPTV services around the country. Verizon’s FiOS TV service is rolling out fiber to customer homes and now has over 1 million subscribers, which is pretty good for a new TV provider. However Verizon is just using IP for their VOD, not for broadcast TV. Essentially, Verizon is just using cable-type delivery for broadcast. AT&T’s U-Verse, on the other hand is using IP for both broadcast TV and VOD.

Adding IP to TV essentially means bringing the Internet to your TV. Imagine a future where viewers will be able to get scrolling tickers, interactive commercials, e-mail on TV, multiple video angles of a sporting event, phone calls on TV screens, and lots more. That’s the promise of IPTV, however neither AT&T or Verizon have added much interactivity yet.

[tags] interactive TV, survey, research, Ensequence, IPTV, U-Verse, FiOS TV, AT&T, Verizon [/tags]

According to a survey from BIGresearch, people often multi-task during commercial TV breaks.

Channel surfing is the the most popular activity during TV commercials with 41.2% doing so followed by talking with others in the room or by phone (33.5%), and mentally tuning out ads (30.2%).

Interestingly just 5.5% said they regularly fully pay attention to commercials. That’s got to hurt any advertisers out there. And the survey didn’t even take into account DVR users, who may routinely skip through commercials. Wonder how many of us DVR users usually pay attention to commercials. I sometimes catch an interesting snippet of a commercial and rewind to watch one. But that does not happen very often. The ad must look very engaging or weird for me to think it’s worthy to watch.

What happens when there are no commercials? How do people with DVRs multi-task when they skip commercials? Most likely they have to create their own breaks (bathroom, phone calls, smoking, laundry, cooking, etc.) whenever they can. As an avid skipper of commercials, I can go hours without taking a break from watching TV.

And when is a good time to stop? During actual commercial breaks or do you just pause it whenever? I do both.

The survey also found that eating is the number one activity people do while using media followed by doing housework, doing laundry, cooking and talking on phone. Now that’s all media like radio, TV and Internet.

[tags] DVR, advertising, survey, research [/tags]

According to In-Stat, the DVR market is growing by leaps and bounds worldwide. They estimate that DVR unit shipments will reach 31.6 million by 2011 worldwide, up from 19.5 million in 2007.

In-Stat also says that TiVo is the top DVR company as measured by total subscribers. The next top providers are EchoStar, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and BSkyB.

Apparently, lots of growth is happening in Europe and Asia. I think most of those are happening from IPTV deployments, since most IPTV services have DVR functionality and IPTV is
growing rapidly in Asia and Europe. As more companies around the world turn to IPTV, DVR usage and deployment will grow–both are intertwined.

Just to clarify, IPTV is commonly defined as broadcast TV delivered via broadband over a closed network, like phone lines (DSL) or fiber to the home. IPTV hasn’t made a big dent here in the U.S. since cable and satellite are the biggest TV providers. But AT&T’s U-Verse and Verizon’s FiOS TV are finally seeing subscribers in the hundreds of thousands here in the U.S. And those numbers will continue to grow. And many of those people will be using DVRs.

[Via In-Stat Press Release.]

[tags] DVR, In-Stat, IPTV, U-verse, FiOS TV, Verizon, AT&T, digital video recorder, research, analysis [/tags]

A report from Deloitte & Touche says that 38% of Americans are watching TV shows online. A previous study conducted just 8 months ago found that 23% watched shows on the Internet.

About 54 percent said they are creating their own online content such as photos, videos or music. Most of these are for others to see. In fact, 32 percent said they consider themselves to be “broadcasters” of their own media.

Additionally:

• 54 percent socialize via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards,
• 36 percent said they use their cell phones as entertainment devices. Just eight months ago, 24% said they did so meaning that usage has grown over 50 percent. Most are using digital cameras, text messaging, and games on their phones.
• 45 percent are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs
• 20 percent view videos on their cell phones daily or almost daily
• 45 percent maintain a profile on a social networking site.
• 85 percent still find TV advertising to have the most impact on their buying

[Press release here]

[tags] research, analysis, Deloitte & Touche, TV, advertising, mobile, mobile media, social networking,  content creators [/tags]

A press release by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said that over 50% of U.S. households own a digital television (DTV). The group predicts that TV manufacturers will post 11% revenue growth, to over $25 billion, from sales of digital televisions in 2007. CEA also is predicting 13% of revenue and 17% unit sales growth for digital television in 2008.

Now keep in mind DTV does not necessarily mean HDTV. DTV, according to the FCC, just means the ability to view digital programming via a built in or external digital tuner.

Nevertheless, consumers in the U.S. are definitely buying more HDTV sets–or at least are planning on buying them in 2008. The Financial Times writes:

“According to research published last month by The Diffusion Group, almost a third of non-HDTV households in the US are interested in purchasing a new HDTV set in the next six months.”

With the analog switch-off happening in Feb. 2009, it’s a fair bet to say that 2008 will see a huge growth in DTV sets.

A new research brief from Jupiter Research says that DVR penetration in the U.S. will grow from 19% in 2007 to 35% in 2012. That means penetration will almost double in five years.

In the last year or so, various research companies have been putting out press releases saying that the U.S. DVR penetration rate is about 21%. Nielsen said penetration is at 20.5%, Leichtman Research said it’s at 20%, and IBM said it was at 24%. So I think even Jupiter’s assessment of 19% is definitely in the ballpark.

In fact, I came up with the 21% figure by calculating the average of all four numbers which is 20.88%. Since four different sources came up with very similar numbers, I’d say it’s as accurate as you can get.

Trying to figure out forecasts, however, can be tricky. JupiterResearch says that the growth to 35% in five years means that there will be about 20 million new DVR households. That’s a huge opportunity for DVR providers.

Jupiter’s forecast breaks down DVRs between Telco DVRs, Cable DVRs, satellite DVRs and stand-alone DVRs (like Tivo). Interestingly, the largest project growth sector is the Telco DVR market. That’s because Telcos are only starting to rollout IPTV services and DVRs and have a very small market. In five years, Jupiter is predicting an over 460% growth rate (0.5 million to 2.8 million).

Second largest growth is in the cable DVR sector with their numbers doubling from 10.3 million in 2007 to 20.7 million in 2012. In every year, Jupiter is forecasting that cable DVR penetration will be the leading segment.

The smallest growth is for the stand-alone DVR market–yes, that means Tivo primarily. Jupiter is predicting relatively stagnant growth for that market from 2.1 million in 2007 to 2.8 million in 2012. It seems Jupiter is saying that stand-alone DVRs, like Tivo, will play an increasingly smaller role in the market.

Personally, I think Tivo will remain a strong contender in the DVR market since its features and partner offerings are much stronger than anything the cable or satellite providers have with their DVRs. But many people have been saying that Tivo, as a DVR set-top company, has a limited future. So I see one of two things happening:

1) Tivo begins to show real growth by lowering its prices, dropping subscription fees dramatically and touting its unique features and advantages over cable and satellite DVRs. It can also drop its hardware business and sell services like DVR software, DVR advertising and analytical services.

Or

2) Cable and satellite providers start adding new features similar to Tivo so that there’s no real difference except between them. Cable/satellite companies end up getting a bigger market and Tivo ends up getting acquired by another company.

Operators have a huge advantage over Tivo because they already provide TV services and can upsell customers to a DVR. Switching to HD? Your provider will likely try to get you to add a DVR to your service when you call to make the switch. Moving? When you set up service, your cable or satellite company can offer you a good deal on a DVR. Consumers that have never owned a Tivo won’t know what kinds of cool features are available to them and will have no problem owning cable/satellite DVRs.

Tivo, on the other hand, must market itself heavily to show that there’s value in dropping the cable/satellite DVR for their own box.

Perhaps the best thing Tivo can do is to give away the DVR box and offer low-cost subscriptions in exchange for advertising revenues and subscriptions to premium services like music, place-shifting, Internet access or podcasts. Providing software, rather than hardware, can cut costs and be another wise move for Tivo.

This report should be a wake-up call for Tivo. If things don’t change much, stand-alone DVRs like Tivo may end up with a very small piece of the DVR pie in the next five years.

[tags] research, Jupiter Research, DVR, cable, satellite, TV, DVR penetration, digital video recorders [/tags]

According to a new survey from Horowitz Associates, 60% of Internet users watch online video content at least once a week. That’s a big jump from last year when 45% of people said they streamed or downloaded Internet video at least once a week. Another finding was that 86% of users viewed a video at least once a month.

The study found that news and user-generated content are most viewed, and that ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy was the “most-mentioned program viewed online”. So although “Chocolate Rain” and “Leave Britney Alone” may be Internet sensations, most people still tend to view professional online content from the big TV networks. That’s definitely a change from a few years ago when TV networks didn’t put their shows on the Internet.

In fact, the survey found that 70% watch an online TV show because they missed the episode on television. About 18% said they were watching the TV show again after waiting it on TV. That’s a lot of people. I almost never re-watch a show on the Internet–I just have too many shows that I love to watch and don’t have time to watch them again. I might like to catch snippets, however, or go to YouTube and look at funny clips. But I wouldn’t watch re-runs on the Internet.

I just got a new HDTV set last month and have been enjoying the crisp picture from DVDs, and HD channels from my cable provider. In fact, my HD set has changed how I watch TV.

I now watch HD content almost exclusively. My cable provider Comcast has a decent amount of HD channels and groups them in a separate part of the channel listing, plus I can also search and look at only the HD TV and on-demand channels. So I’ve been ignoring all the SD channels I have (which must be over 70 to 80) in favor of the 20 HD channels I get. In fact, I sometimes prefer watching an HD commercial over actual SD programming! The quality of the picture is so great, it’s almost not worth spending time watching SD content on an HD set.

I watch more HD sports. It’s football season and now I’m watching more football than ever. In recent years I haven’t watched much sports on TV, but now with HD I’ve been watching Sunday and Monday Night Football as well as the NBA. The quality is incredible; it seems like there are actual little men running around in my living room. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Motorola, found that more people (45%) would prefer to watch sports like college and NFL football on a HDTV than in person (32%). Watching in HDTV is almost like being there in person, with with the comfort of being at home and (if you have a DVR) the ability to pause, record and re-wind the action).

I watch HD music. I love all kinds of music, especially live music. I get MTV’s high definition music channel called MHD and watch that very often. It features live concert footage of artists like Bon Jovi, Alicia Keys or MTV concerts in HD format. The quality of the concert footage is simply stunning. The lights and sounds and crisp images make it seem like you’re live at the venue. Unfortunately, when I tried to watch music videos on Comcast’s on-demand menu, they were all SD quality. There was no option for HD music videos. Where can I find them? Surely artists are filming their videos in HD, so why can’t I find them?

Planet Earth. I can’t stop watching the Discovery series Planet Earth, a mini-series documentary that took over five years to film. The filmmakers used HD cameras exclusively to capture the majesty of the Earth’s planets, seas, and animals. It was simply made for HD. The other day I watched a slow-motion, high-speed video of a shark attacking a seal. And it was breathtaking to see the clarity, the detail of each split second. This kind of made for HD programming is what viewers want to see.

In sum, I want more HD content. What I have is simply not enough. And SD content seen on an HD set just looks crappy and fuzzy and out of focus. I can’t wait until everything on TV is HD.

It’s no surprise. Time shifting is for the young. A study by the Nielsen company found that younger adult TV viewers are 2.5 times more likely to timeshift than older viewers.

In fact, 50% of older viewers said would “do nothing or wait for reruns” for shows they missed. Do nothing? Do they not care about the latest Lost or Heroes episodes?

And think about it. Reruns? How often do you keep track of reruns and when they might come back on the air? Nobody likes reruns, unless you happen to miss an episode? And unless you’re some sort of fanatic (or a younger TV viewer) you’ll probably be OK with missing a show.

In fact, reruns are dying. They’re being replaced by DVRs, iTunes/iPods, Start Over on-demand features on cable and streaming via the Internet.

It’s almost as if the TV networks don’t really care about repeats, since they are putting recently aired shows on the Internet for free. Or by paid download via iTunes (or even NetFlix, which is where I go to catch up on Heroes).

Anyway, younger viewers are more hip to technology, have more time to waste hunting down their favorite shows and have grown up with online TV viewing.

The study also found that 50% went to ABC.com more than any other TV site when looking for catching up on shows. NBC.com and CBS.com were next.

Bonus: Nielsen’s PDF of the Study Results.