PVR Owners Watch Shows Within Three Days of Recording Them
If you’ve recorded a show on your Tivo, chances are you’ll see it within three days of its original air date. According to researchers at Nielsen Media, most owners (84%) of personal video recorders (PVRs) watch their recorded shows within three days. Seventy-eight percent watched their recorded shows within two days.
That means that most PVR owners: a) Like to keep current with their TV shows; b) Use PVRs to skip commercials; and c) Use PVRs to watch shows on their own schedule.
The study isn’t very ground breaking, but it’s nonetheless interesting. It also provides a baseline metric to see how this may change in the future as more people purchase and use PVRs.
Personally, I’ve discovered a similar trend: I watch many shows soon after I record them on my Tivo. But there are also times when I record a show and either never watch it, or it takes me weeks or even months to watch it.
If I’m watching “How I Met Your Mother? or “24?, I usually watch it the same night it airs or the next night. But if I record shows like “The First 48? or “Cops? I will likely wait a few days or weeks to watch it because it’s not crucial that I watch it quickly. As a result, my Tivo is packed with lots of shows that I keep putting off, and few shows that I really want to watch.

December 14th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
Before I switched to a new DVR, I had one show for over a year… and then when I sat down to finally watch it, my Replay had recorded the wrong program! UGH!