Fans use DVR’s to record live sports more than you think

The conventional wisdom among fans is that live sports events have to be watched live and are “DVR-proof.” But a recent survey shows that this is not the case. A Thuuz Sports survey of 1,000 pay TV subscribers found that a vast majority, 84.3% use DVR’s to record sports.

In addition, 84% of sports DVR users record live events several times a month. Now why do they do this? According to Thuuz, 75% say they use the DVR as a backup when they can’t watch sports live. Another 58% use the DVR to record the start if they might be away from the TV and then watch from the beginning to catch up and 58% skip the ads.

The survey concludes that because of this, fans would be open to a premium highlights package. To bolster that conclusion, the survey says 70.1% would be either “extremely” or “very” interested in a service that culls highlights from their recorded games and pay extra for it.

Now Thuuz’s study is interesting because it has its own product that would build highlights to subscribers called “Thuuz Highlights.” It builds video highlights based on games recorded through a set-top TV DVR, a pay TV provider’s on demand library or through the cloud.

Thuuz announced it has partnered with Fox, NBC and others on this technology. And Comcast is testing its own DVR in-game highlights technology on its X1 service.

It’s all about improving the game experience for viewers. No longer do fans just want to turn on their TV’s to watch the game live, DVR’s have helped them to watch on their own time, catch up and skip ads.

Now the next step is to provide highlights and through Thuuz and perhaps other companies wanting to throw their proverbial hats in the ring, fans may find their experiences expanding to other realms, not just highlights.

[Multichannel News/Thuuz]