The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) ran a study where they looked at PVR usuage in the US and in Canada and determined that only 5% of all Canadians are currently using PVRs and only 38% were even familiar with how they worked. When they surveyed American consumers, the number of people who have PVRs jumps up 15%, but even at that level, it’s still a pretty small number given how powerful the technology really is.
The crazy thing about a PVR is that it’s really tough to demonstrate the benefits to someone without seeing it first hand, but once a consumer experiences the power of time shifting, it’s very tough for them to go back to live TV.
When I bought my first TiVo, it was actually on accident. I had gone to Best Buy to buy a home theater system, but the sound set up that I wanted was a little too expensive. Rather than go home empty handed, I made an impulse decision when I saw the TiVo and after taking it home was immediately floored with how transformative the technology was. Going from a world where you had to schedule your TV to a world where everything was available on my own schedule had a huge impact on my life and instantly made me an evangelist for the company.
Not only was I able to watch more TV, but I found that I starting hanging out with friends more on week nights, because I didn’t have to race home to catch my favorite shows. I also found that my TV became more engaging because I stopped missing episodes and found it easy to stay caught up on my favorite shows. After only a month, I was already telling everyone I knew that they needed to get a TiVo, so that they could take control over their own television viewing, but had limited success in convincing people I knew to try the product. The few friends who did go out and buy a TiVo still love their boxes today, but it wasn’t until they had already spent the upfront money and signed up for a subscription with TiVo before they realized how amazing DVRs really can be.
The US cable market has helped spread awareness of the DVR by renting it directly to consumers, but even without the up front cost, it’s still been surprisingly difficult to convince consumers to adopt the technology on a mass scale. TiVo has also experimented with a stripped down basic version that DirecTV users can demo before upgrading to a paid package, but it hasn’t solved the problem of getting consumers to pay for their box. When the TiVo/Comcast/Cox download is finally ready to go live, I’m hoping that TiVo will be able to offer consumers a free month, so that they can experience the benefits of TiVo over a generic DVR before committing to a purchase, but I’m not sure how difficult it would be to unistall their operating system, in case consumers wanted to go back down to the stripped out generic box. As time goes on, I have no doubt that the PVR will continue to gain in popularity, but given that it’s been 8 years since TiVo first launched their DVR box, it still surprises me when I see how few consumers have really tried it out.
Davis Freeberg is a technology enthusiast living in the Bay Area. He enjoys writing about movies, music, and the impact that digital technology is having on traditional media. You can read more of his coverage on technology at www.davisfreeberg.com. Davis owns shares of TiVo stock.