Have your TV viewing habits been forever changed by DVR technology?
Last year in an article about Chuck (the TV series), I wrote that my TV viewing habits had been forever changed by my DVR. I think now more than ever, TV networks need to take note of this change, because I know I’m not the only person who has adopted a new way of watching TV.
Years ago, if a show was important to me, I watched live. These days this is exactly opposite of how I treat the TV shows I love and adore.
Here’s what I wrote:
One thing I will say as a last side note, Networks and TV people need to take note of how the DVR has changed tv for so many people. I watch stuff live when it catches my interest but isn’t on my have-to-see list. If I absolutely don’t want to miss a show, it gets recorded.
I don’t watch any of my favorite programs live anymore. I want to be able to see Chuck and my other favorites from start to finish without interruptions–and that includes the commercial content. It’s only the stuff that doesn’t really matter that I watch live these days. I feel it’s important that networks understand this. I’m not the only one with this attitude. The DVR has forever changed my TV viewing habits. (Link: Chuck TV show news article where I made these comments)
Do you depend on your DVR the way I do for favorite shows, but leave live viewing for less-than-beloved series? How do you watch TV these days?
December 16th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
The only thing I watch in real time is the news at 6 PM. I usually take the TV Guide from the Sunday paper, circle all the shows I care to watch and then program them into my Cox Cable DVR. In many cases there are two desirable shows on at the same time and the DVR makes it easy to catch both. Then I just watch them at my leisure, usually 1-3 days after they originally aired. I do this with cable channels as well as broadcast channels. I have been doing this for a couple of years and love it. I am no longer forced to watch TV at a certain time. And, Yes, I do FF through the commercials.
December 16th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
This sounds very similar to how I do things. I don’t have a schedule like you do, but I do find myself taking the time to spend fifteen minutes or so a week going through the guide picking out anything I might like to watch in the upcoming week. Like you, I usually watch a few days later.