DVR Habits Among Upscale Viewers

tv watchers Research conducted by experts in affluent-adult behavior found that among U.S. homes with incomes of $100,000-plus, more than 63% have a DVR. Not surprisingly, that's far above the 27% of all U.S. households.

The findings suggest that marketers looking to reach coveted upscale viewers may have an uphill battle if wealthier DVR owners are also rabid commercial-zappers.

The research from Ipsos Mendelsohn--culled from 1,200 interviews--indicates that some of the networks where upscale viewers are likely to skip ads are the Style Network, Fine Living and Versus. The research found 86.3% of all affluent viewers with DVRs watch the Style Network, 84.4% tune into Fine Living, and 80.9% view Versus.

(The likelihood of ads being skipped for those and other networks specifically was not directly addressed by the research, which covered 75 channels.)

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There are 15 million U.S. homes with incomes of $100,000-plus that have DVRs. That group may gravitate to Style Network's fashion/design focus and the draw of Fine Living. However, the high Versus tune-in among this group it somewhat curious. Versus does carry cycling events, such as the Tour de France, that may play a role.

Richard Vogt, a vice president at Ipsos Mendelsohn, said those three networks likely have such high viewership among the affluent because they generally are offered on cable tiers that cost a premium. But he said: "Nickelodeon disproves that theory. It's not a blanket statement."

The widely distributed Nick is watched by 75.3% of homes with incomes of $100,000-plus with DVRs. VH-1 also has a high viewership among the group, at 73.7%.

The research found very little difference among the broadcast networks in their appeal among affluent DVR viewers: 65.9% watch Fox, followed by ABC (64.9%), CBS (64.6%) and NBC (64.5%).

Since 1977, Ipsos Mendelsohn has released an Affluent Survey, as it did in September. The new research is a supplemental. The 1,200 interviews that form the basis for the data were conducted in the final months of 2008.

The research also offered a psychographic profile of an affluent DVR owner, including they: *follow "the latest developments in the automotive world" *are "willing to pay more for a product that is environmentally safe" *"like to talk to others about what I buy" *are "willing to pay more for convenience"

1 comment about "DVR Habits Among Upscale Viewers".
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  1. Jon Currie from Currie Communications, Inc., January 8, 2009 at 12:18 p.m.

    This is just bad research. There is no conceivable way that "86.3% of all affluent viewers with DVRs watch the Style Network, 84.4% tune into Fine Living, and 80.9% view Versus. " If we assume that affluent viewers with DVRs make up 15 million homes, that would equal about 8% of the entire population of the US TV households. So 8% of the whole US is watching these cable nets? I bet 8% of the population would be a high figure to even recall these networks.

    And moreover, watch means what? Tune in for 5 minutes? Zap through on the way to finding HBO? If that's the case, I watch over 500 nets every day.

    Frankly NBC would love to have 8% viewing them most times of the day. This is really poor research and ever more poorly presented research. Do people really get paid to do this stuff?

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