Just over 8 in 10 U.S. TV households have a DVR, a Netflix or cable or telco pay-TV video-on-demand (VOD) subscription, according to new consumer research from LRG (Leichtman Research Group). Thirty percent of the 82 percent use two of these services, while 14 percent use all three. The number of households with Netflix now surpasses those with a DVR, LRG said.
More than half – 54 percent – of the 1,211 U.S. TV households LRG surveyed reported having a Netflix subscription (including those who share passwords). That exceeds the percentage of those who said they have a DVR (53%) for the first time, LRG highlights in a press release. By way of comparison, 44 percent said they had a DVR and 28 percent said they had Netflix in 2011.
Households with Netflix, Other Offerings
Other highlights from LRG’s “On-Demand TV XV” include:
- 64% of households get a subscription video on-Demand (SVOD) service from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and/or Hulu – 51% of all adults stream any of these services on a monthly basis
- 23% of all adults stream Netflix daily as compared to 6% in 2011
- 81% of Netflix streaming users watch Netflix on a TV set
- 64% of pay-TV subscribers have a DVR as compared to 49% in 2011
- 60% of DVR households have DVR on more than one TV as compared to 33% in 2011
- 65% of all cable and Telco video subscribers have used VOD from their current provider
- 58% of all cable subscribers used VOD in the past month as compared to 42% in 2011.
“On-Demand and time shifting TV services like DVR, VOD and Netflix have permanently changed the way that people can watch TV. Today, over 50% of households have a DVR and, for the first time in the fifteen years of this study, over half of households have Netflix,” LRG president and principal analyst Bruce Leichtman commented.
“Yet traditional TV viewing still exists. For example, 46% of adults agree that they often flip through channels to see what’s on TV.”
Nonetheless, cable, satellite and telco pay-TV service providers need to up their game if they’re going to compete with upstart OTT competitors, according to recently released research. One in four of the more than 6,200 consumers Paywizard surveyed reported having canceled a digital pay-TV service in the previous 12 months because of poor customer experience.
More than 8 in 10 (84%) said they would terminate their pay-TV subscriptions if customer service and support failed to meet their needs or expectations.
