PVR Household Penetration Reaching Double Digits
Author: MELINDA SACCONE
msaccone@advanstar.com
Posted: January 6, 2005
Personal Video Recorder (PVR) penetration has reached nearly 11 million households according to Video Store Magazine Market Research estimates, as satellite and cable companies roll out aggressive marketing campaigns to push PVR services into the hands of their subscribers.
PVR penetration has reached 10 percent of U.S. households, according to Video Store Magazine’s 2004 Consumer Home Entertainment Study.
PVR manufacturers have teamed with satellite and cable providers to aggressively market PVR to their customers. Satellite providers have been much more aggressive than their cable counterparts in promoting PVR to their subscribers in hopes of luring potential customers by offering satellite systems that include PVR services for very little cost to the consumer.
Satellite households are much more likely to have PVR capability than their cable household counterparts, perhaps because of the great fragmentation in the cable customer base.
According to Video Store Magazine’s 2004 Consumer Home Entertainment Study, 18 percent of satellite households had PVR capability compared to 11 percent of cable households.
However, PVR penetration among cable subscribers varies greatly among the different cable providers, according to a study conducted by Lyra Research.
Household income played a pivotal role in PVR ownership. Consumer households earning more than $100,000 annually were nearly twice as likely to have PVR capability than the overall average, with 21 percent saying they had a PVR. By comparison, only 7 percent of consumer households earning less than $60,000 annually had PVR capability compared with 10 percent of overall households. Consumers earning $40,000 – $59,000 annually were the least likely to have PVR capability, with only 6 percent claiming ownership.
Gender did not play as pivotal a role in PVR ownership. PVR ownership by both men and women hovered around 11 percent, on a par with the overall average.
The young signed on while the older demographic lagged in PVR adoption rates. Consumers who were 50 years old or more were the least likely to have PVR capability, with only 8 percent owning PVRs.
The twentysomething crowd, or the “on-demand” consumers, were the most likely to have PVRs, at 13 percent.
The kid factor had an impact on whether or not a household was PVR-enabled. While overall consumers with children were more likely to have a PVR, the propensity for ownership nearly tripled for households with kids under the age of 5.
Twenty percent of parents to the under-5 crowd had PVRs — compared to just 7 percent of households with no children under the age of 5. |
