February 13, 2009 - TDG recently queried more than 2,000 adult broadband users regarding their use of linear TV services, over-the-top or web-to-TV video services, and ownership and use of a wide variety of video-enabled consumer electronic platforms, among them TVs and DVRs. This Chart of the Week shares our latest data on ownership of four such platforms: standard CRT or analog TVs, high-definition TVs, and both stand-alone and integrated DVRs.
As illustrated, the average broadband household owns 1.95 standard analog TVs and 1.07 high-definition TVs, meaning the average number of TVs per broadband household is 3.01.
It appears that the number of total TVs per broadband household has remained relatively unchanged over the last several years even while the number of HDTVs per broadband household has increased significantly. Analog TVs, then, are exiting the household at about the rate that HDTVs are setting up residence.
As the digital transition nears (a point which inevitably shifts further into the horizon), it will be interesting to see whether this balance continues. Several questions persist:
- Will broadband households replace their outdated analog sets with new HDTVs (a trend contradicted by recent TDG research which indicates that demand for HDTVs has declined by 50% since the economy turned sour)?
- Will they instead just turn to less-expensive converters, giving their analog sets a second life?
- Then again, will they just make do with fewer TVs in the home given the lack of confidence in a timely economic recovery?
Even if the average number of TVs per broadband household remains static (or declines), there is little doubt that the number of DVRs per household will continue to grow. Today, broadband households own/use on average .41 stand-alone DVRs (such as a TiVo) and .51 embedded DVRs (such as those included within a Pay TV set-top box). Stand-alone DVRs are present in 30% of broadband households, compared with 38% penetration of STB-embedded DVRs.
This validates long-standing wisdom that retail DVRs have little chance against operator-subsidized DVRs that increasingly come "free" with one's digital Pay TV service. Stand-alone DVR vendors such as TiVo recognized this truth a few years back and appropriately refocused their efforts on growing operator relationships (thus embedding their DVR solution in the operator's set-top box) and adding broadband content to their slate of featured services and applications (to differentiate their solution from other DVR platforms, embedded or otherwise).
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