More than three quarters (76%) of U.S. homes have a DVR, subscribe to Netflix or use video-on-demand from a cable or telco provider, up from 70% last year, Leichtman Research Group found in its latest study.
Additionally, 26% of homes use two of those services, and 11% use all three, LRG found in On-Demand TV 2014: A Nationwide Study on VOD and DVRs, its 13th annual study on the topic.
LRG’s study, based on a survey of more than 1,230 U.S. homes, also found that 62% of homes that take a pay-TV service also have a DVR, up 41% from five years ago, while just 1% of homes that don’t take pay-TV have a DVR. Additionally, more than half (55%) of homes with a DVR now have it on more than one TV set, versus 28% five years ago.
DVR adoption continues to skew toward higher income brackets, as 66% of homes with annual household incomes of more than $75,000 have one, compared to 33% among those with incomes of less than $30,000.
Netflix usage, meanwhile, is higher among consumers who don’t take a pay-TV service. According to LRG’s findings, 32% of pay-TV subs with Netflix use the popular OTT SVOD service daily, versus 53% among Netflix subs who don’t subscribe to a traditional pay-TV service.
LRG also found that 36% of pay-TV subs get Netflix, versus 48% of non-pay-TV subs. Additionally, 36% of Netflix subscribers stream video daily and 72% do so weekly – that’s up from 10% and 43%, respectively, in 2010, LRG said.
“While VOD and DVRs were relatively nascent when this series of studies began, they are now core components of pay-TV packages,” Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, said in a statement. “Along with Netflix and other over-the-top offerings, these on-Demand TV services have permanently changed the options of how people may choose to watch TV.”
Among other findings in LRG’s latest study:
- 25% of current non-DVR households previously had a DVR at home.
- 59% of all cable subscribers have ever used VOD, compared to 46% in 2009, and 10% in 2004.
- 63% of digital cable subscribers, and 58% of telco video subscribers, used VOD in the past month.
