Comscore report: in March, 69.9M US homes had DVRs and 64.1M had smart TVs; monthly viewing hours on smart TVs hit 5.5B, vs. 4.6B for DVRs
Among the many positive indicators for OTT in Comscore's newly released 2019 “The State of OTT” report is the platform's imminent surpassing of DVR tech.
Context & Ripple Effects
Comscore's 2019 'State of OTT' report captures a crossover that had been building since comScore found 53% of WiFi homes using at least one OTT service back in 2017: even though DVRs still sit in more homes (69.9M vs. 64.1M for smart TVs), smart TVs already command more monthly viewing hours — 5.5B against the DVR's 4.6B.
The gap between installed base and usage is the story: the device people actually watch through has changed before the device census catches up. A year later the census flipped too, when smart TV penetration overtook standalone streaming devices in Q1 2020, confirming this report as the leading edge of a shift already underway.
First-order effects
- Advertisers and networks buying time-shifted audiences get a new benchmark: smart TV apps, not DVR playback, are now where the incremental TV minutes accumulate, which directly affects how Comscore and rivals package OTT measurement.
Second-order effects
- Pay-TV operators' DVR hardware and rental economics lose their usage justification as recorded playback cedes hours to app-based viewing, while platform players like Roku and Amazon Fire TV — holding 39% and 30% of the streaming-player market per Parks Associates — fight the smart TV itself for the home-screen default.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the living-room control point migrates from the cable operator's leased box to whoever owns the TV operating system and its app storefront, making OTT measurement firms like Comscore — already expanding via partnerships such as its Twitch audience deal — the arbiters of where ad money flows.
The trend: The home screen's gatekeeping role is shifting from operator-controlled DVR hardware to internet-connected TV platforms, with viewing-hours data forcing the advertising market to follow.