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PVRs Have Become Mainstream Products

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 million, a 60 percent increase over the 11.9 million units shipped in 2004. In-Stat projects that worldwide unit shipment totals will reach 42 million by 2010.

"TV viewers like the PVRs ability to record programming with the push of a button," says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst. "Pay-TV service providers like PVRs for their ability to create new revenue streams, while at the same time providing bandwidth constrained service providers with an on-demand service option."

In-Stat also found the following:

- There are currently 12.3 million U.S. households with installed PVR products. This raises the PVR penetration rate of total U.S. TV households to 11 percent.
- 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 percent of PVR users are either extremely satisfied or very satisfied with the PVR service.
- Worldwide PVR product revenues reached $6.6 billion in 2005, up from $4.5 billion in 2004.
- In 2005, North America and Japan accounted for 82 percent of all worldwide PVR product unit shipments.

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