I doubt if this is a selection effect:
It seems that adults in households that have digital video recorders
watch less TV than adults in the general population, according to a
recent analysis by Mediamark Research, an audience-measurement firm.
Here is the story. I, for one, usually read a library book sooner than a book I buy…
C’mon: selection bias. People who have digital recorders
are probably wealthier, and so have inherently higher opp. cost to
watching TV–they have the money to go to the theater,
movies, etc.
I agree with Joe, and not just because of his name.
I’d like to see this adjusted for wealth, employment, all kinds of other factors that would affect how much TV time someone has to spare.
My personal experience is that most of the TV I watch is not the shows I want to watch, but the shows *around* the shows I want to watch. With a DVR, I can record only the show I want to watch, and watch it when it’s convenient for me.
Case in point, “The Boondocks”. Great show. On Adult Swim. Adult Swim is full of shows that I do not particularly WANT to watch, but which I *would* watch if I happened to be watching TV anyway and the channel selector was already on Adult Swim. So while “Tom Goes to the Mayor” sucks and I hate it, sometimes I would watch it anyway just because I happened to be on that channel when I turned on the TV.
Now I have a dual-tuner DVR that background-records “The Boondocks” while I’m doing something else and my toddler is watching Noggin. The channel on the visible television is *never* Adult Swim, so now I don’t find myself wasting any time at all on “Tom Goes to the Mayor” or “Twelve Ounce Mouse” or “Squidbillies”. And that makes me much, much happier.
People who spend fewer hours watching television may be viewing DVDs as well or commenting on blogs.
By the way, I’d guess the selection effect would run the other way.. the people who buy a fancy expensive TV machine are probably people who watch _more_, not _less_ TV than the population at large.
Alternate hypothesis: All TV viewers will watch TV until they are satisfied. DVR users, since they watch only the programs they want and not the unsatisfying commercials, reach their level of satisfaction quicker.
Well this survey holds good for what i experienced over last 10days after installing Windows Media Center. Ability to record has reduced my otherwise habbit keep the idiot box up for my prefferred programs. Now just like i tag my URLs for future read, looks like i seem to like just being able to record and skim past the recordings and just spend much lesser time on the habit of watching ‘TV’…lets see what i feel about few months…my wife, Neetu, suggest we go back(as an experiment removed cable from the TV set up) to TV….good to tumple on your nice blog
ModalHubby is right, there’s a psychological effect that makes one watch perishable TV that you really don’t care about if you have it on demand. I own several DVDs that I’d never think to put on and watch in my free time, but if I find the same movie on cable I’ll stop to watch it.
We don’t own a TV, but we do own an XM to go satellite radio. I got into the habit of listening to “Pardon the Interruption” on the ESPNEWS feed at 5:30 p.m. CT while cooking supper. Then I got the idea of setting the XM uit to record the show so I could listen later. It didn’t work out that way, as I rarely had time later in the evening to listen, so now I’m back to listening to just part of it while cooking dinner.
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