Netflix TV Homes Outpace Those With DVRs

by Wayne Friedman , March 6, 2017

A survey by the Leichtman Research Group says that 54% of U.S. TV homes have Netflix, versus 53% that have a DVR. This is the first time that TV homes with Netflix (including those sharing Netflix passwords) have topped the time-shifting technology.

Six years ago, by way of comparison, 44% of TV households had a DVR and 28% had Netflix. These results come from research of 1,211 U.S. households.

The study also says that 64% of households get a subscription video on-demand (SVOD) service from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and/or Hulu.

Some 51% of all adults stream any of these services on a monthly basis. In addition, 82% of U.S. TV households have DVR, Netflix, or video on-demand (VOD) from a cable or telco provider; 30% are using two of the services, and 14% are using all three.

Looking just at Netflix, 23% of all adults view programming from the services, compared to 6% in 2011, while 81% of Netflix users watch Netflix programming on a TV set

In pay TV homes, 64% have a DVR compared to 49% in 2011, while 60% of DVR households use time-shifted viewing more than one TV versus 33% in 2011.

Drilling down into pay TV homes, when it comes to other time-shifting access, such as video on demand ,the study says 65% of all cable and telco subscribers have used VOD. Nearly 60% of all cable subscribers used VOD in the past month, and 42% in 2011.

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6 comments about "Netflix TV Homes Outpace Those With DVRs ".

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Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, March 6, 2017 at 1:50 p.m.
DVRs are for those who hate commercials and hope to skip them but Netflix is for those who really hate commercials.
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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, March 6, 2017 at 2:24 p.m.

Often, they are the same homes, Douglas. And, it should be noted that while Netflix subscribers tend to watch about a third less broadcast network TV shows than all adults, they are pretty frequent basic cable viewers---including many shows with very low DVR delayed viewing levels. Which means that even though they may "hate" commercials, they either see a lot of them anyway---or they rush to the bathroom many times per hour----or, maybe, they multitask their heads off many times a day to avoid commercials---who knows?

Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC replied, March 6, 2017 at 4:48 p.m.

Douglas... The DVR has far more value than skipping commercials. In fact, the biggest value ISN'T skipping - but recording and playing back programming that you want to see - but want to watch on your own schedule.

In fact, both DVRs and Neflix are attempts to solve the same problem - how to have something I want to watch WHEN I want to watch it. And both provided partial solutions to that problem - especially given how flakey availability is on Netflix.

Ed might have a sense of how much people really use their DVRs for skipping. It's not negligible but it's also not their primary purpose.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, March 6, 2017 at 7:20 p.m.

Doug, according to Nielsen, the average person with a DVR---about half of the population-----uses it to time shift about 20% of his/her/ total viewing time and most of this activity is for primetime broadcast network entertainment fare, some cable shows and a few special event telecasts. Of this, I am told by agency folks who have seen the numbers, only half of DVR viewing takes place with commercials deleted or otherwise avoided. So, rounding off the numbers, commercial avoidance, per DVR user is about10% ----not the stupendous amounts implied by some---or only 5% when calculated against the total population. Now this doesn't mean that all non zappers actually watch the commercials. My own estimate is that non-overt avoidance---like leaving the room, not paying attention, certain forms of multitasking, etc. ---- accounts for an audience loss of roughly 40%--- far more than the 5% who use their DVRs to eliminate commercials when viewing on a delayed basis.

Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC replied, March 7, 2017 at 4:51 p.m.

Slight aside... Since TiVO is the only DVR that was properly advertised, I thought they blew their chance to tell people why we should care about them.

My problem was all they advertised was "rewind live TV". And that was a big yawn. Too much tech hype - not much human.

But a friend of mine (investor who knew the folks at TiVO) told me why I should want one.

He said "You've got kids. It's 8:00 and you normally spend 10 minutes reading to them. Except your favorite show starts at 8:00. Instead of missing your show or disappointing your kids, with TiVO you read to them anyway then start watching from the beginning at 8:10 or 8:15".

TiVO never put out that message or any of the similar ones - a great solution to the "will I find what I want to watch when I'm ready to watch it" problem. But since TiVO missed their opportunity and Cable co's are pretty bad at that kind of messaging, they've done well.

Wonder how much market opportunity TiVO missed since consumers quite often need to be shown how to get value from a product?

Doug Garnett from Protonik, LLC replied, March 7, 2017 at 4:52 p.m.

And thanks for the insight. I remember all the hype in 2000 (which we still hear today) about the DVR killing off TV advertising. And yet the studies over the 2000's showed slight improvement in ad effectiveness. We in the ad biz struggle to think clearly about viewing habits.