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Does a DVR Boost Viewing Hours or Not?

Everyone that is thinking of getting a TiVo or another DVR device often asks me if I watch more or less TV in the end. I've never had a good answer: at first I watched much less TV since I was only catching the 2 or 3 shows I really liked, but after a few years I ended up with 50+ season passes to stuff I loved and I probably watch more than I did pre-TiVo.

The New York Times has a tidbit on recent research that showed the heaviest watchers of TV tended to not have a DVR. The article mentions the findings conflict with a small test CBS did last year that showed DVR owners watched more TV.

If you check out Mediamark Research's press release on the study, you'll see that they focused on broader demographics type stuff and "23% less likely to be heavy TV viewers" is mentioned near the end.

I think I'd agree with the CBS executives on this one. The wording of the study findings sounds suspect. They are only looking at the top 20% of TV viewers, people watching 44.5 hours or more of TV in a week. That's more than an 8 hour-a-day job and definitely someone outside the norms of TV watching. I would be much more interested in the other 80%, the people that have normal lives and watch 15-20 hours of TV a week. Even if there was no significant difference between DVR owners and non-owners at that level of weekly TV viewing, it'd still be noteworthy considering they interviewed 26,000 people for the study.

It sounds weird to make a blanket statement like DVR owners watch less TV when you're only comparing people at the edge of the bell curve.

by Matt Haughey July 30, 2006 in News

Comments

We've been TiVo users for over 5 years now. We like to answer the question that we watch more shows, but the same or less telvision with TivO than without. Our viewing is more productive and efficient.

i.e. tonight we watched 4 episodes of The Daily Show in say an hour. Skipping commercials, intros, and un-interesting interviews we watched that show in half the time it would have taken us to watch live - and that at 11 PM which we just would never have done w/o TiVo.

So yeah, we watch more shows, but we watch them much faster (20 mins saved per hour recorded) and we *never* watch something we don't *want* to watch. As they say, "there's always something on."

I recently blogged about our TiVo viewing actually - http://www.hail2pitt.org/blogs/index.php?title=tivo_commercials

Posted by: Caleb at Jul 30, 2006 8:36:08 PM

When someone asks me what TiVo has done to my TV habits, my answer is "I can't really say whether I watch more or less TV, but I definitely watch better TV."

Posted by: George Hotelling at Jul 30, 2006 8:48:41 PM

Finally after getting a DVR I can reasonably enjoy a show on US tv, the commecial setup here is ridiculous, adverts every 10mins and just before the end of a show actually led to me abstaining from tv for 4 years (which was very refreshing), I think if anything a more British approach to TV commercials should be adopted here (i.e adverts before, once in the middle and finally following the END of a show). This approach would lead to people being a little more receptive to commercials and more importantly not detract from the enjoyment of watching the actual show, which is at the end of the day the main objective for the viewer

Posted by: Louis at Jul 31, 2006 3:56:28 AM

Definitely more shows, but also definitely less time in front of the TV.

Just cutting out commericials cuts down regular viewing by 33%. Skipping over unneccesary parts even more.

And my viewing times have been moved to more unproductive times of day.

For example, in the summer I don't want to sit down to watch TV from 8 pm to 9 pm, because it's still light out and I can get things accomplished outside. Instead I can put it off until a sunday night or a late weekend night.

Posted by: Stephen Collins at Jul 31, 2006 8:36:03 AM

I agree with Louis, Cutting commercials and 'unnecessary' portions of show (reality TV I hope you're listening). But yes, more shos consumed, but less time per session in front of the tube.

Posted by: Jason at Jul 31, 2006 11:56:50 AM

I watch much more TV than I did before I had a PVR. But only because I watched almost no TV at all. I hated being on a schedule, watching commercials, etc. I moved to netflix so I'd have things to watch, then the DVR when I had to (got married).

Agree with everyone else about the time savings around commercials, intros, closings, boring bits. And even abandoning shows. If I record something and find its pan&scan (for example), I can toss it and watch something else (or nothing) because I haven't scheduled the time, and therefore mentally invested in that particular show the same way as I would watching at the scheduled time.

Posted by: shoobe01 at Jul 31, 2006 12:02:32 PM

I had a similar question, and I actually did some quick calculations on it. First, upper 20% isn't the outer edges of the bell curve (less than 1 standard deviation out), but the method is still suspect. Their stated findings go with either a substantial decrease in mean viewing time or a smaller (less than 20%) decrease in standard deviation. I have more on my blog. Here is a link because I don't feel like retyping: http://wolf87.blogspot.com/2006/07/alex-mad-alex-smash-bad-research.html

Posted by: Alex at Jul 31, 2006 7:17:58 PM

Its a complicated question. As popular as TIVO has become, its still largely an early adopter technology. Early adopters are not the norm in many areas, including TV viewing habits... so have there been any studies that normalized this data?

For our house, (my wife is normal, I'm a nerd) our habits have definately changed. We are very discerning of the television we watch (we never watch time waster programs, like ET, or Seinfield re-runs anymore). When we feel like some couch time, we may resort to the lower priority programs on our "Now Playing" list, but its not uncommon that we just turn of the TV and go back to my first love... the Internet. On the other hand, when the Now Playing list is full of new shows (sweeps), we actually watch much more television then ever, even after adjusting for saved commercial time.

I watch more if the quality is there, otherwise I just watch less. Our standards have gone up quite a bit. As a side note, my wife tends to have more filler shows (Food TV, H&G, etc) and turns the TV off less then I do.

Lastly, I find that I actually stop and watch commercials that catch my attention now. It could be an attractive car, woman, Apple ad, or something else but if it catches my eye and I have not seen it yet then I'll pay attention.

Posted by: Travis at Aug 2, 2006 6:10:30 PM

I watch more. I pick up more interesting shows that I might not otherwise and even random shows thanks to Tivo suggestions. But I am home less at the same time. Right now I have a 2 hour commute by bus twice a day, So I watch stuff copied from my Tivo.

the best

Posted by: Brian at Aug 14, 2006 8:05:06 AM

I absolutely watch more now. Before, I simply was never home or awake when the shows I liked came on so I just downloaded and burned them to DVD to watch. Since it was such a hassle to watch the (maybe) 2 shows I was interested in, I didn't bother with anything else.

Once I got the Tivo, I actually looked through the suggestions and found that there was a lot more good stuff on than I originally thought so I set up several season passes and my previous 2-3 hours / week of TV time turned into about 9-12 hours. Where before I was considering just canceling cable entirely, I've now actually upgraded my package.

For me, TV was basically useless before the Tivo.

Posted by: Murray at Aug 17, 2006 12:54:39 PM

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