Consumer demand for Personal Video Recorder (PVR) products continues to increase. In just seven short years since their original introduction, PVR products have gone from “niche” to mainstream, according to In-Stat. 2005 was another banner year for PVR products with worldwide unit shipments reaching 19 mln, a 60% increase over the 11.9 mln units shipped in 2004. Worldwide unit shipment totals will reach 42 mln by 2010.
There are currently 12.3 mln US households with installed PVR products. This raises the PVR penetration rate of total US TV households to 11%. Based on end-user totals, TiVo, EchoStar, and Time Warner Cable are the top three PVR service providers. End-user satisfaction with PVR service remains extremely high. Based on an In-Stat consumer survey, 86% of PVR users are either extremely satisfied or very satisfied with the PVR service. Worldwide PVR product revenues reached $6.6 bln in 2005, up from $4.5 bln in 2004. In 2005, North America and Japan accounted for 82% of all worldwide PVR product unit shipments.