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Study: Almost Half of U.S. Households Have HDTVs

Chris Albrecht — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:17:29 +0000

Forty-six percent of U.S. households have at least one HDTV set, according to a new study from the Leichtman Research Group (LRG), roughly double the percentage of homes that had HDTVs two years ago. LRG says the adoption was spurred by falling HDTV prices and the dearth of non-HDTV sets available. (Shutting off analog TV transmissions didn’t hurt, either.)

LRG believes that roughly 64 percent of all HD households are getting HD programming from an MSO, which is up from 58 percent last year. Suprisingly, 14 percent of individuals with an HDTV think they’re watching HD programming — but aren’t. Not to sound elitist — but COME ON! People should know the difference between HD and non-HD on their TV sets by now.

LRG’s numbers will surely need an update after this holiday season, as HDTVs topped Retrevo’s Gadgetology survey, with 30 percent of Black Friday TV shoppers wanting high-definition sets. Our own Ryan Lawler braved the early morning crowds to upgrade his TV situation and eventually even got the physical store to match its online price (which was $40 lower!).

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Online Video Viewing Up, Impact on TV “Negligible”

Chris Albrecht — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:31:11 +0000

Television is still king, despite gains being made online. That’s according to two separate research reports released today. Taken together, the studies from Nielsen and Leichtman Research Group (LRG) also help illustrate how newteeve is impacting oldteevee (hint: it isn’t).

In its A2/M2 Three Screen Report for the fourth quarter of 2008, Nielsen found that video consumption is up across all three video screens. In the U.S. each month the average TV watcher soaks in 151 hours of television (an all-time high), the average online video viewer watches some three hours’ worth of content on the web, and people who use mobile video watch almost four hours of video on their phones and other wireless devices.

The overall number of people watching video across the three screens is up as well, with the number of people watching time-shifted television jumping 37 percent year over year to stand at almost 74 million vs. nearly 54 million people in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Some of the other key takeaways from the Nielsen report include:

31 percent of Internet activity occurs when consumers are also watching television.

At 7 hours, 11 minutes per month, timeshifted TV is watched at double the pace as video online. But young viewers (18-24) watch video on the Internet and on a DVR at the same rate: about 5 hours per month.

Men continue to watch video on mobile phones more than women, and women continue to watch video on the Internet and television more than men.

During the fourth quarter, growth of online video was driven by events such as election coverage and the SNL/Sarah Palin clips.

Weekdays outpaced weekends for online video viewing in October with 65% of online video viewers streaming content between 9am–5pm Monday through Friday, versus 51% of online video viewers logging on between 6am–8pm on weekends.

Despite the bad economy, the number of homes with DVRs continues to grow – more than 29% of U.S. homes are able to timeshift television, up from 27% in 3Q08.

Elsewhere, LRG came out with its own research, finding that 34 percent of adults who have online service at home view online video weekly, compared with the 31 percent who did so last year.

When it comes to the cable companies starting up their own online video services, LRG found that TV shows are low on the list of content that users watch online. Further, online video’s impact on TV watching and cable subscriptions has been “negligible.”

Key findings from the LRG study include:

Overall (including those not online), 1% of adults view recent TV shows online daily, and 8% weekly – compared to 6% weekly last year

Overall, 24% of adults report viewing a news clip online weekly, 20% view YouTube or other user-generated video online weekly, and 15% view sports news or highlights online weekly

93% of adults with a TV report spending at least an hour a day, on average, watching TV, and 35% of adults spend at least four hours a day watching TV – similar to last year

8% of adults who watch video online strongly agree that they now watch TV less often, while 75% strongly disagree

18% of teens who watch video online strongly agree that they now watch TV less often, while 61% strongly disagree

Among all adults online, 3% strongly agree that they would consider disconnecting their TV service to just watch video online – compared to 4% last year

Those who watch recent TV shows online weekly are no more likely to consider disconnecting their TV subscription than others

While weekly online TV show viewers spend twice as much time online per day as the average adult, they are also more likely than average to subscribe to a premium service, have digital cable, use on-Demand, have an HDTV, and subscribe to a bundle of services from a single provider

Just 6% of those who watch recent TV shows online weekly are likely to switch from their multi-channel video provider – compared to 11% of others

It would have been nice if rather than just making clear who is hanging onto their cable subscriptions, LRG had shed some light as to why they’re doing so. We’ll need to keep an eye on these stats moving forward. Perhaps in these recessionary times, people see cable as a bargain.

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More People Prepared for DTV (Though Confusion Remains)

Chris Albrecht — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:30:18 +0000

Hard to believe, but the big national switch to digital TV is less than two months away. Nielsen released its December update on the national readiness status and found that the number of U.S. households completely unprepared for the DTV switch dropped to 6.8 percent from 7.4 percent in November. That’s roughly 7.8 million homes completely that aren’t ready for the transition.

The pace at which the country is getting ready improved from November to December (dropping six-tenths of a percent) over the pace from October to November (when it dropped three-tenths of a percent). This acceleration comes amidst projections that sales of flat panel sets will be off this quarter and 2009 is expected to be the toughest year yet for TV manufacturers.

This increased preparedness is reinforced by a recent Leichtman Research Group survey that found 95 percent of adults were aware of the DTV transition. But while most people know about the upcoming switch, there is still a lot of confusion about what it actually means. In its fourth-quarter Research Notes, LRG writes that “37 percent of current HDTV owners, and 48 percent of those interested in getting an HDTV believe that all TV programs will be in HD after the transition.” This is easy to believe, for as LRG points out, 18 percent of people with an HDTV think that they are watching HD programming but are not.

For those of you needing a refresher, according to the FCC’s digital TV transition web site. “On February 17, 2009 all full-power broadcast television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin broadcasting only in digital. Digital broadcasting will allow stations to offer improved picture and sound quality and additional channels.”

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