Almost 46 percent of all households now own a DVR, up 4% from last year. We now watch less “live” TV, but more programming, thanks to DVRs (digital video recorders).

Younger viewers have been setting their own schedules via streaming, ondemand, delayed and what they have on their DVR, but new and returning shows “are adding significant audiences as nearly 46 percent of U.S. households now have a DVR (up from 42 percent last season)” according to The Hollywood Reporter 10.19.12.

From a February 29, 2012 Nielsen Wire article some old school and new school statistics dating back to 1960:

Then (1960): 7% of households received cable.
Then (1990): 56% received cable and 66% owned a VCR.
Then (2006): 89% of TV content is viewed live.

• DVR usage accounts for 1.6% of our TV time.

Today:

• 98% of homes own a TV and most have some kind of device hooked up to their television.
• 85% of TV content is viewed live.
• DVR usage accounts for 8% of our TV time.

With the increase of DVRs in viewer’s homes, episodes and series are now “scored” in a new way. For example, the second episode of NBC’s Revolution jumped more than 50% to a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49 with three days of delayed viewing (according to The Hollywood Reporter 10.19.12).

If you look at Nielsen, who has been providing timely information on media and consumer trends on TV since 1950 (radio since 1930) their “source” states: Live viewing and DVR playback on the Same Day, defined as 3am-3am. Ratings are the percentage of TV homes in the U.S. tuned into television.

But the whole point of having a DVR is to watch a show when it’s convenient for you. Copper on BBC America comes on at 9pm CST on Sunday I’m fast asleep by then. Since it’s on DVR I’m not that much in a hurry to watch it, but because I really enjoy the show and love Tom Weston-Jones, I sit down on Monday night and watch it.

DISH’s new “Hopper” aka the commercial-killer was the talk of the cable show in Boston in late May this year. While the Hopper’s automatic ad-skipping is limited to recorded broadcast TV for now, cable networks and distributors said it was a worrisome development.