To say that the internet and DVR has changed the way we watch television is an understatement. Sure, there are exceptions but based on TiVo’s recent data, TV viewers are becoming more and more reliant on On Demand features, between what they DVR and what they access through services like Netflix.
Once upon a time, if you wanted to watch a show, first you had to check TV Guide to see when it was on. What? You have plans that night? Find a tape, queue it up, get it into the VCR, set it to record. Don’t forget to make sure the clock on the VCR is set right first. Stupid blinking “12:00.” Ok, you’ve got it ready to record. Was there enough space on that tape? Do you even remember what tape you used or what you were taping over? Yikes, there goes little Susy’s ballet recital. Did you turn the VCR off after you got it set? No? Oh well, maybe you’ll catch the episode in reruns a few months (or years) from now.
DVR and the internet has revolutionized how we watch TV in many respects, changing our options for what we watch and when we watch it. The DVR makes keeping track of our shows as easy as television should be. And internet services like Netflix not only gives us the opportunity to conveniently and affordably revisit shows we once loved, but also to view series we missed the first time around.
Based on what the Hollywood Reporter says about DVR service TiVo’s findings based on their users, “nearly two thirds of viewing on them is now driven by delayed TV or online on-demand content.” Leaving the smaller percentage for people who are watching TV as it airs live.
Said TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers: "As people watch less live TV, the television industry is being challenged like never before to meet the needs of viewers. For the cable industry, TiVo is the leading provider of advanced television solutions that deliver seamless access to four forms of content - traditional live TV, recordings from TV linear channels, operator video-on-demand, and broadband-delivered video.”
Not to sound like a TiVo advertisement here, but TiVo’s Premiere DVR not only keeps track of and records the user’s preferred TV shows, but it also conveniently delivers content from Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon On Demand and YouTube to the user’s television. (Hopefully they’ll add HBO Go to that list eventually). It’s a one-stop shop for home entertainment, and a device (and service) frequent TV viewers like myself would be lost without.
Given the amount of content available to us, not only through the many (many) cable channels delivering original content, especially by comparison to what was available a decade or two ago, added to huge variety of older content now being offered by subscription services like Netflix, it’s not a huge surprise that viewers have become more reliant on the DVR and the internet to give deliver the content to them when it’s convenient.
