More Homes Viewing Content From DVR, Netflix or On-Demand, Study Finds

Three-fourths of U.S. homes view TV content from a DVR, Netflix or an on-demand service from a cable or telco provider, according to a survey from Leichtman Research Group. A quarter of survey households use two of the services and 11 percent use all three, Leichtman said. Of the U.S. households subscribing to pay TV, 62 percent have a DVR, up from 41 percent five years ago, Leichtman said, compared with those who don't subscribe to pay TV and have a DVR penetration rate of 1 percent. Just over half of DVR households have service on multiple TVs, up from 28 percent five years ago, it said. Additional findings: Two-thirds of households with annual incomes higher than $75,000 have a DVR, vs. a third with incomes of less than $30,000, while a quarter of non-DVR households reported owning one in the past. Six of 10 cable subscribers have used VOD, up from 46 percent five years ago, and 63 percent of digital cable subscribers -- and 58 percent of telco video subscribers -- used on-demand in the past month, it said. More than a third of pay-TV subscribers get Netflix, compared with 48 percent of non-subscribers, and 36 percent stream video daily, Leichtman said. VOD and DVRs “are now core components of pay-TV packages,” and along with Netflix and other over-the-top offerings, on-demand TV services have “permanently changed the options of how people may choose to watch TV,” said Bruce Leichtman, president. The study was based on a telephone survey of 1,233 adults ages 18 and over, done in November throughout the continental U.S. among TV households. The overall sample has a statistical margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent, Leichtman said.