According to a recent survey of 5,800 mainstream US TV viewers, 93% of people are watching more TV than they were last year. A lot of that growth, however, is coming from TV-watching on the Internet (more than half are viewing some TV online, 15% are watching more than 6 hours per week online) and time-shifted viewership by way of DVRs, which increased for 71% of survey respondents. Among those using DVRs, 96% are skipping the commercials. Ninety-six percent!
The topic of commercial-skipping gave birth to one of my all-time favorite headlines, from Outside the Beltway last year: “86% Skip Commercials (14% Can’t Find Remote).” The good news is, I guess, that 10% of people have cleaned up their living rooms, gotten themselves organized, and now they can locate their remote controls.