DVR Penetration Means Time-Shifted Viewing Is Up

Television time-shifted viewing is growing this season -- for almost all shows.

Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate media director for Horizon Media, says throughout the season so far there are 19 shows that witnessed 3 million or more viewers after seven days of time shifted viewing. By comparison, in 2009, there were 11 shows and in 2008 there were only 3 shows. Much of this comes from higher penetration of DVR technology in U.S. TV homes, now at 37.2% in November 2010, according to Nielsen, versus 32.3% in November 2009 and 26.9% in November 2008. Still, despite this, Adgate says, some programs report a drop in their time-shifted audiences: Fox's "The Cleveland Show" went to 13.5% from 15.3% of its audience coming from time-shifting. Even CW's "Gossip Girl" dipped a bit, 35.3% from 36.0%, while CW' "Smallville" went to 31.5% form 35.8%.