Of the three major devices we connect to our TVs — gaming consoles, DVRs and DVD players — DVRs get by far the most use. While we’re watching less live TV than a few years ago, we now watch a full 19 minutes more per year of programming, just on our own schedules now.
Those statistics and more from a new Nielsen study reveal how TV-watching habits have changed with the growing popularity of DVRs.
“The percent of DVR usage has grown fivefold from a mere 1.6% in 2006 to almost 8% in 2011, and DVRs are adding time to our TV day by allowing us to watch shows airing at the same time. Leading the trend in DVR usage are females 18-54, who allot almost 10% of their TV viewing time to a DVR,” the study says.
In 2006, DVR usage made up just 1.6% of TV time. Now it makes up 8% of our TV time, according to Nielsen.The chart below breaks down the distribution percent of minutes using a television and its various connected devices, according to age demographics.
Thumbnail image courtesy of mlabowicz via Flickr
Honestly, I thought that DVR usage would have grown more until now, but I know a lot of people still come home and watch TV, rarely going anywhere. That doesn’t describe our family though, as we are home less often than we are gone. The frustrating part is that we want to watch our series sometimes into the summer because we haven’t caught up, but there isn’t enough room on the DVR. We even connected an external hard drive, but even that has filled up. I was excited though when I found out that DISH, my employer, decided not to charge any up front fees for the Hopper, which holds 250 hours of HD recordings. I’m excited about the fact that it will record six shows between 7-10 p.m., four of which are the major networks. I can’t help but wonder if the largest segment of people with pay TV is in the 34-54 categories though, which would explain why they are higher users of DVR, since many pay TV companies give simple DVR equipment to customers for a monthly fee.
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