Wednesday
Jan122011
Jan 12 Time Shifted TV Habits?
Did you know that 20% of TV viewers in the US watch TV at a time other than originally scheduled? Are you time shifter? Let us know how you watch network content in the comments section below. We'll talk a bit more about the subject on Friday's show.
Reader Comments (14)
That's all? I have watched essentially all TV (at least at home) time shifted. It was with VCRs before tivos.
Even for the rare shows I watch 'live', I watch something else for ~15 mins/hour, so I can skip commercials.
Hi Mattack,
We do the same as much as possible. The only thing I can't watch time shifted is Football. I end up FFWD'ing through the plays and miss too much of the game that way.
Ara
I NEVER watch anything live any more. If I start to watch something live, I hit record at the first commercial, go watch something else for a while, then come back to the other show later.
We definetely watch approximately 95% of our shows time shifted. Watching "live" tv is painful! I used to know when (what day) shows were on but not anymore. We love to pull up the now playing list and select what to watch. I believe this is a big advantage over hulu.
The only thing we watch live these days is football. I don't think we have watched regular shows live since we got our first DVR 5 yrs ago. Even my parents (in their 70s) prefer to watch VOD or DVR'd shows over live.
We watch 100% of TV time shifted. As soon as we turn on our PVR, time shifting starts automatically. Fantastic
In the past three years, the only thing I've watched live was the Superbowl. I usually start NFL games about an hour late so I can skip the commercials.
I don't know how anyone could watch TV that is NOT time shifted! I'm trying to think if there's anything that I watch "live" anymore.
I record hockey games - so not that. Ice the puck? Skip. Goalie freezes the puck? Skip. Commercials? FF. Break between periods? FF. So live sports isn't a draw for me.
I like to vote for Canada's Favourite Dancer when "So You Think You Can Dance Canada" is on. But there's a 2 hour window for voting, so I don't even watch that live. I hate the judges (and our Canadian host), so I just let the show record and then skip everything that isn't the actual dancing! Takes about 20 minutes to watch a 2 hour show that way :p
Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without my DVR! I had to live without a DVR for about a week a few years ago when there was a problem with my cable hookup. It was awful! Luckily, it happened in early January, so I didn't miss many shows. I have a 1 TB expansion hard drive now on top of the 160 GB drive in the DVR and I'm STILL worried about filling it up! So no shortage of things to watch time shifted for me!
I've noticed this trend in our household too. Especially this season. We don't watch anything live anymore. Maybe the 6 o'clock news while we're having dinner and it's on in the background mostly but that's it. I'm curious as to how this might affect Nielson ratings for shows when people or at least a percentage of viewers are no longer watching the show at the timeslot that the broadcasters expected?
I have repeat what many here have already stated. I watch nothing live with the sole exeption of live sports. I don't want to waste 20 minutes watching lead-ins and commercials on a network show. We have the ability to control our viewing schedule and we will not be going back anytime soon. What I fear is the networks inserting the ads into the content of the shows. It's already bad enough with product placement and the distracting logos and network ads. When that happens I will completely sign off on network content and wait for the video releases. One of my projects this spring is adding a terrestrial antennae to get the sports events that are carried on free TV. Personally I getting closer to cutting the cable every day.
of course. I have watched 100% time shifted since I bought my first tivo in June of 1999.
Sean
We watch everything time-shifted except weather and news. Last weekend I watched all four NFL playoff games in one 4-1/2 hour sitting, using the 30-second skip button between plays. I usually watch the last half of the 4th quarter without the skip button to preserve the tension and excitement at the end of a close game. I simply don't have the time or the patience to sit down and watch four live 3-1/2 hour football games in a single weekend.
I think the audience for this show is pretty homogenous -- like most other regular HTguys listeners, my wife and I do not watch anything live. We only watch TV shows on weekends, and then we watch shows we recorded earlier in the week. Even for current sports, we'll start a recording, and then wait a while before beginning to watch it so we can skip through breaks if there's nothing there that interests us.
The only TV I watch live is sporting events. All other TV watching is timeshifted, often by days instead of hours. I won't miss a live Packers or Steelers game, but I will watch new episodes of Chuck or V or NCIS days later.