Did you sneak a peek at the latest episode of NBC’s The Blacklist without your spouse? Well, shame on you! Or, join the club: Everybody’s doing it!
Both responses are apparently apropos, according to new data from DVR pioneer and video analytics company TiVo.
If you and your significant other have a “must-see-together” show, there’s a good chance that one of you is “cheating” by watching episodes without the other, according to a new survey from TiVo that collected results in July from 454 adults who also have a significant other.
The study, TiVo’s second annual on the topic, found that 59% of these couples engaged in show-cheating, and 27% lied about straying. And men (go figure) apparently lie more often than women.
Even if you aren’t cheating, your significant other probably thinks you are — 73% said they are convinced the other is watching shows without them.
Most don’t even go far away to do the dirty deed: 79% report committing the act in their own homes, which likely contributed to another finding: nearly half (46%) of these video adulterers get caught. Men are more likely to have their behavior found out (53% vs. 40% of women).
Chalk up a lot of this TV cheating to busy calendars, as schedule conflicts (43%) were the biggest culprit.
Despite all of this cheating, watching TV series as a pair is a popular activity, as 82% of respondents said they have at least one program they are expected to watch with their significant other.
TiVo’s study also found that comedy is the genre most watched together, though it skews toward news and talk shows among adults who are 55 years or older.
There isn’t a huge difference on how couples like to watch shows together, by the way: 36% like it with the lights on, while a more modest 34% want the lights off.
The rest? Apparently they just like to do it.
Radio-Cable Couple: NPR’s New COO, Charter D.C. Exec
National Public Radio’s new CEO, Jarl Mohn, has promoted Loren Mayor to chief operating officer from vice president of strategy at the public broadcaster.
That’s news in noncommercial-radio circles. But ordinarily it isn’t something that would register on The Wire’s radar, which is aimed at the cable industry.
But Mayor is the broadcasting half of a Washington communications power couple.
Her husband is Alex Hoehn-Saric, former policy director for Federal Communications Commission commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and currently senior VP of government affairs for Charter Communications.
“To keep peace in our home, she controls the radio and I control the TV,” Hoehn-Saric told The Wire. “The Internet is up for grabs.”
Mohn also has direct connections to the wired side of media. The executive formerly known as Lee Masters is the former president and CEO of E! and of Liberty Digital. Yes, that’s the same Liberty Digital whose parent, Liberty Media, owns 26% of Charter.
And so rolls the hoop in a wheel on a spool of cable that is the circle of media life.
— John Eggerton
