US DVR Subscriber Households To Reach 42.7m

By 2012, Magna expects that video-on-demand will reach 63.6 million US households (approximately 54% of television households). This compares with 39 million US VOD households (35% of total TV households) at the end of the second quarter of 2008.

As of the end of June 2008, Magna estimates that 66.8 million households had broadband access out of 117.1 million total households.

The recent Tiscali TV Trends Report 2008 revealed that more than a third of British consumers (37%) are now regularly watching on demand content, with almost two thirds of British consumers (64%) saying traditional TV schedules restrict their viewing too much (see More Than A third Of British Consumers Watch On-Demand Content).

Internet access was enjoyed by approximately 73.5 million households by the end of the second quarter of 2008, said Magna. Total broadband access is expected to rise to cover 80.2 million households by the end of 2012.

According to Magna, DVR households consume only a third of prime time content in a time-shifted manner. It forecasts that 36% of the population will have DVR services by 2012, and presuming all ads were skipped (and that there was no value to a skipped ad) this would equate to a reduction of 11% of prime time ratings points 10 years after the advent of the DVR.

This is equivalent to about two years worth of erosion due to viewing patterns shifting from broadcast to cable. But even the notion of erosion is a false one, as both cable and DVRs contribute to higher total viewership of television and disregards that with annual population growth of 1% per year, total television impressions rise by about 20% over a 10 year period.

Research published earlier this week by NDS found that more than 70% of UK digital video recorder (DVR) owners say that they cannot live without them (see 70% Of DVR Owners Say They Can’t Live Without It).