Survey of viewers shows extent of TV time shifting

My Way News - Survey of viewers shows extent of TV time shifting

From the article:



"If you've never time-shifted a prime-time television series - watched it later on a DVR, over the Internet or ordered it on demand - you're now in the minority.

A survey of viewers conducted on the eve of the new fall season quantifies what has become commonplace in millions of American homes: People are putting themselves in charge of their own TV schedule.

Sixty-two percent of viewers across the country interviewed in a poll conducted for the nation's largest cable company, Comcast Corp., said they have used time-shifting technology. Six in 10 people said they owned a digital video recorder." ...

I'm not surprised. I don't own a DVR yet, but if I did, I'd use it constantly.

I rent a Comcast dvr and own a Panasonic dvr. I'm not a particularly techy kind of person, but I am so spoiled by them and time shifting that I can barely imagine going back to real time TV. Even if I'm watching TV when something comes on that I want to watch, I'll generally watch something that's been pre-recorded and watch the other program later.

I don't just use it to skip commercials (in fact I'll occasionally back up and watch one that looks interesting); I use it more so that I can rewind and watch something again. Plus half the time I have something else to do during the actual broadcast, and so I watch a show after I get home.

Even my 80 yr old mother had a Tivo (not the subscription kind) and used it to record her soaps to watch later in the evening.... a habit she'd picked up years before with her VCR. Granted she wouldn't have thought to buy the Tivo on her own - it was given to her as a gift but she used it a lot.