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Television Media Technology

Women Control the DVR 325

JeiFuRi writes "While men normally hog the remote, a new study commissioned by Lifetime suggests that women are more likely to be in charge of their DVRs . Results from a survey of 1000 married woman say that 48 percent made the decision to purchase a DVR on their own and 55 percent claimed they understood the system more than their husband. Three-quarters of the women surveyed said that the reason they fell in love with DVR is that they are extremely intuitive and much easier than a VCR." The study also found some interesting things about DVR users' ad-watching habits.
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Women Control the DVR

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  • Really... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by xerxesVII ( 707232 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:39AM (#13090842)
    And a study commissioned by ESPN found that men control the dvr.
    • Re:Really... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by lastchance_000 ( 847415 ) * on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:59AM (#13090976)
      What's interesting is that the according to TFA, the study surveyed equal numbers of both men and women, but there is no sign of what the men thought about any question.

      Lies, damned lies and statistics after all...
      • From TFA: In a national survey of 1,000 DVR users divided equally by sex, 48 percent of married women say the decision to purchase a DVR was their own, while 55 percent of the wives claim they understood how to interface with their unit's myriad features better than their husbands."

        My guess at what the men said: "48 percent of married men say the decision to purchase a DVR was their own, while 55 percent of the husbands claim they understood how to interface with their unit's myriad features better than
      • Re:Really... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by IWannaBeAnAC ( 653701 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:56AM (#13091252)
        Yeah, my guess is 100% of the men surveyed claimed that they understood the system more than their wives.

        Even if it wasn't true, how many men would admit it?

      • Meaningless (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ebuck ( 585470 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @02:36AM (#13091386)
        Well after reading the article, I'd say that this does nothing to prove or disprove anything.

        Taking a statictic on a person's opinion is not scientific in the least, heck it might not even be proper measurement.

        I'm suprised that only 55% of women believed that they knew more about thier DVR than thier husbands. That number seems a bit low to me, after all, this isn't a compentency test, it's a test about belief. I'd wager that 100% of all women believe that they can navigate to and from the grocery store quicker than their husbands, even though they both live in the same house, know where the nearest grocery store is located, and probably would take the exact same route.

        It doesn't even matter what the men thought, because it's still playing around with perception testing, which is interesting if you want to gather information about a perception. However, perceptive information isn't consistent amonst members within a population (even a very homogenous population) so I doubt this information will have any pratical application other than sensationalisim.
    • 55 percent of the wives claim they understood how to interface with their unit's myriad features better than their husbands.

      Now, what features do their husbands have that these women DON'T understand how to interface with?

    • by mcc ( 14761 )
      What does Nickelodeon think???
  • In related news... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by iamnafets ( 828439 )
    Women also say they are the smarter sex. Since when does it matter that they "say" they know the DVR better. Everyone knows guys are television experts.
  • by kschawel ( 823163 ) <slashdot AT li DOT ath DOT cx> on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:40AM (#13090849)
    While 99 percent of women say they use their DVRs to zap through commercial spots, 76 percent reported that they stopped for ads that are entertaining or relevant to their own interests. Women are also more likely to pause for TV and movie promos.

    "DVRs give them a mechanism to find commercials that are relevant, and that's a big message," Brooks said. "It's not that people don't want commercials, it's irrelevant interruptions that turn them off."


    Ok, that is a big hint to the tv industry. Women do not want irrelevant commercials, but are willing to watch and advertisement that they are interested in. Unfortunately for the tv industry, I don't think men want commercials at all...

    Also FTA:

    The study, which was commissioned by Lifetime,

    Lifetime, the network for women, is saying, "ADVERTISE HERE! WOMEN WATCH COMMERCIALS!"

    See, there's a slant to everything.

    Keith
    • by Bodrius ( 191265 )
      I doubt men are that repelled by advertisements...

      I'd think men want anything that has sex in them, and are generally receptive to scenes that promote tribal behavior, if pop-culture is any indication.

      Hence the popularity of memes originating in beer commercials.

      I'd like to think people in general are receptive to clever amusement, advertising included; although that is a bit less substantiated, people do share such advertisements as interesting memes in spite of their corporate message.
      E.g.: I'm current
    • by raehl ( 609729 ) <(moc.oohay) (ta) (113lhear)> on Monday July 18, 2005 @04:40AM (#13091753) Homepage
      Now that I know this, I would like a lot more commercials about:

      - Feminine products that reduce the frequency of menstraul cycles
      - Public service announcements regarding the importance of the low oil pressure indicator light
      - The How-To's of toilet use: Look at toilet before use. If the seat is up, lower it, without comment.
      - Getting what you want by actually saying what you want
      - Weight Loss Success with the Microwaveable Frozen Food diet
      - Beer: The new Slim Fast
      - Top 10 Health Benefits of Breast Implants
      - New Cure for Erictile Dysfunction: The Silent Treatment

      I mean, since I'm fast forwarding through these things anyway, might as well give relevant information to the people actually watching the commercials.
    • > Women do not want irrelevant commercials, but are willing to watch and advertisement that they are interested in. Unfortunately for the tv industry, I don't think men want commercials at all...

      What ! ?... I too care about relevant commercials - like how drinking Vud Blight beer will make Jay Leno look like Angelina Jolie. Or how I can overcompensate for the size of my ..uhmm.. nose with a new SUV which I can drive through two blocks to my office.

      But yeah, I don't want to watch another AD on ba

    • "Unfortunately for the tv industry, I don't think men want commercials at all... "

      Close.

      Men want commercials with big, bouncy BREASTS.

      This may be funny, but also insightful ;-) ...And TRUE.
      Please moderate to hell.
  • It makes sense (Score:5, Interesting)

    by matt21811 ( 830841 ) * on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:40AM (#13090857) Homepage
    This doesn't surprise me at all.

    My wife and I have had cable for the last 6 years. I noticed and interesting difference in viewing patterns between us. I found that I tend to watch channels but she watches programs. I'll turn on the TV and watch news, documentary or sports channels and I'm not too fussy, I'll surf between the 4 documentary channels until I find something interesting and watch it. Her viewing decisions are made from looking at the program guide, the clock, recommendations from her friends and womens magazines and then decide what and when to watch. She will actually plan to watch a particular program (amazing I know). I don't think I've done that in years. A PVR would only improve her viewing convenience but it would make no difference all to mine.

    It doesn't seem surprising to me that women would then control the PVR.
    • In that case, I am a woman in a man's body... :) I do the exact same thing: record the shows I want to see so that I can see them when *I* want, not when the networks decide to show them. Skipping the commercials is of course a bonus.

      Speaking of "surfing the tv", my girl friend tend to do that more than me. Just sitting down, see what is on and just stick to some program. I guess she is a man in a woman's body then...
    • She will actually plan to watch a particular program (amazing I know).

      Gotta agree, I suspect these results come from something along the very lines you propose.

      VCR not intuitive? A VCR has basically the same sort of interface as a PVR, with the PVR quite a lot more complex. Biggest difference? You set a VCR to record by time, not by program.


      Though, I have to admit that my viewing habits more closely resemble females ones, at least in that I watch specific programs, not just pick a channel and wat
      • Re:It makes sense (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Talla ( 95956 )
        VCR not intuitive? A VCR has basically the same sort of interface as a PVR, with the PVR quite a lot more complex. Biggest difference? You set a VCR to record by time, not by program.

        On a PVR, you can just click record when you want to record something. When you want to view it, you look at the list of what you have recorded, and select what you want.

        With a VCR, you first have to find a tape, check that there's nothing on it you want to keep, and then start recording. If you want to keep whats on the s
  • I could of told you this without any 'fancy' study..

    Yeah.. my Tivo is filled with my wife's crap... :(
  • She has to rewind every single time she misses the most miniscule piece of irrelevent dialog. Can't we just watch the show thru one time first?
  • "While 99 percent of women say they use their DVRs to zap through commercial spots,"

    Goes to show you how many people actually watch ads. I bet the percentage for men is the same. Slobbering ad executives still won't get it.

    "A full 94 percent of those who said they fast forwarded commercials said they could still recognize brands and products as they zapped through the spots." ... or maybe they will, and they'll finally invent the Blipvert! I'd tolerate blipverts if it meant that less time per show was spe
  • by Naikrovek ( 667 ) <jjohnson.psg@com> on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:46AM (#13090890)
    forgive me, some will think this is "sexist" but deep down you all know its true:

    Men hunt, women gather.

    Give women the opportunity to browse and pick the best [whatever] and they'll do it better than any man. A DVR does this. You can schedule things in advance, wait for them to come in, and pick the fruit when its ripened.

    channel surfing without a DVR is similar to hunting. you browse, you pick a target, and you strike at it by putting the remote down. decision made, decision executed, finality. man stuff.

    mod me down if you disagree, but before you do, give it some thought. its not as wrong as society would like you to believe.
    • by bsdrawkcab ( 622946 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:10AM (#13091032)
      forgive me, some will think this is "sexist" but deep down you all know its true:

      You make it sound as if you're about to say something controversial when you're really just repeating conventional wisdom and pop psychologists. I do happen to find your attitude sexist, but it's an attitude that pervades our culture. Please don't portray hegemonic views as persecuted beliefs.

      Men hunt, women gather.

      I don't buy it. Your analogy doesn't even make sense. When hunting you have some target. You have to have a particular target in order to set the PVR. When browsing particular channels, on the other hand, you trust that certain memorized areas will bear fruit. Sounds like a gatherer's approach to me. [Of course this is an equally fatuous comparison. I make it only to demonstrate how easily expectations can be fulfilled, no matter their validity.]

      mod me down if you disagree, but before you do, give it some thought. its not as wrong as society would like you to believe.

      Since when has it ever been wrong to express such views in American society? I find it to be factually wrong and harmful to the extent that it's prescriptive, but I strongly doubt that I am in the majority here.
      • wow, this was one of the most intelligent, thought out comments to a slashdot article i've read in a long time. Nice job.
      • by mbius ( 890083 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @02:23AM (#13091334) Journal
        When hunting you have some target.

        I get up before dawn, put on Woodland pajamas, douse the living room in consumer urine, power on the telly and sit for hours, silent and motionless behind the couch, waiting to spot that elusive creature: the ten-point news program.

        My weapon of choice? A Sony Universal with rechargeable AA Ni-MH rounds at 1.5V.

        And an eight-inch call that goes "market share! market share!"
    • by learn fast ( 824724 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:29AM (#13091115)
      It's not a matter of disagreeing, it's a matter of falisifiable science rather than generalizating from trite, vacuous proverbs like "Men hunt, women gather." Pretty much any behavior could be described as either hunting or as gathering, and there is no way to resolve disputes as to whether an activity counts for sure as hunting or as gathering. Hence unscientific, astrology-like stuff.

      We could also say that men don't use the DVR as much because they are lazy, and women do because they are compulsive. Or maybe we could say that men are poor relaters and women like the interaction-like experience of using the DVR. Or maybe women use the DVR because they have exacting, varied tastes and men don't because they are generalizers and don't really care.

      And it would probably all be complete bullshit. Which is why we try to make simple, scientific hypotheses and test them in a way that could falsify them without requiring metaphor or analogy.
      • Well if you didn't put up your "I disagree so I won't think about it" walls, you'd see he was using "hunt" to symbolize the pursuit of a paycheque to pay the bills, and "gather" as in take core of the home.

        Now while these positions don't hold true these days in the literal sense, they did for thousands of years. Do you not think this could possibly change the way we think and behave? I bet you think male and female emotions are the same too, huh? This may change with time, but whether it offends you or
    • by Atario ( 673917 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:40AM (#13091171) Homepage
      Are you saying a PVR can replace a wife? That's just ridic-- I mean, it's...uh...

      Hmmmm.
    • I thought it was women that were supposed to be illogical? One of the guys below did a pretty good job of showing why your argument was asnine, so I'll concentrate on this "it's not as wrong as society would like you to believe". That's a logically flawed point in and of itself. The fact that society might or might not have a particular bias one way or the other doesn't change the fact that your argument , objectively, makes no sense. There could even be a fast left-wing feminist conspiracy, and you'd still
    • Men hunt, women gather.

      Regardless of the sexism, it's just plain false. For most of human history humans got 90% of their calories from gathering and only 10% from hunting. On the whole, humans were lousy hunters. The whole "human-as-mighty-hunter" thing was a myth disproven decades ago, but it still manages to perpetuate itself in popular culture.

      I guess guys just like to think that they're 'naturally' brave warrior types genetically suited to running down large mammals and eating them raw. In fact,
  • by $RANDOMLUSER ( 804576 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:46AM (#13090895)
    Due to a strange mis-wiring in thier brains, women are only able to watch one television show at a time.
    A shocking handicap, I know, but true.
  • by BBrown ( 70466 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:49AM (#13090911)
    Last time I checked, Lifetime also conducts studies in order to improve the veracity of their television shows. According to their studies, 90% of married women are beaten by their husbands and 10% of those women kill/brutally maim their husbands and/or steal the children and run away.

    Hmmmm.

    Why does Lifetime care anyways? All their shows are the same so nobody really bothers recording them.
  • by bsdrawkcab ( 622946 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:50AM (#13090915)
    Namely, the other half of the numbers. 48% of women asserted x. 55% of women responded y. Okay, interesting, but what does this have to do with sex differences? The study included men and women in roughly equal proportions, but no comparison is made to the men.

    If someone could dig up the whole story, your efforts would be appreciated.
  • No kidding (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:51AM (#13090925)
    Yeah, between the PBS sewing shows, hospital dramas, and all 42 variants of CSI... I'd say my wife pretty much controls our Tivo.

    Then this spring I bought a second one for the spare room, but now my daughter has managed to fill that one with her stuff! I can't win...
  • by KillShill ( 877105 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:54AM (#13090953)
    Lifetime

    Propoganda for Women.
  • Damnit... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Vorondil28 ( 864578 )
    ...I used my last mod point not more than 2 minutes ago and the Flamebait-potential of this story is astronomical. ;)

    I'll have my fun yet!
  • I knew it (Score:4, Funny)

    by gadzook33 ( 740455 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @12:56AM (#13090961)
    Damn, two weeks spent trying to set up MythTV and all I had to do was ask my mom.
  • My wife has like 4 or 5 directivos, 3 dish500s, a motorola DCT-5200 digital cable pvrs, and a few standalone tivos hooked up to 4dtv satellite recievers. Not to mention the DVB-S card in our home server. She even wrote special software, so they would all coordinate with each other, and not try to record something another DVR was already recording. With a terabyte fibre channel backend. It's kinda scary. She's even thinking of doing an episode guide database ala imdb, just so she can have better descriptions in the slice info.

    Oh wait, that's me. She can't turn the tv off with the universal remote.
  • The study also found some interesting things about DVR users' ad-watching habits.

    From TFA:
    While 99 percent of women say they use their DVRs to zap through commercial spots, 76 percent reported that they stopped for ads that are entertaining or relevant to their own interests. Women are also more likely to pause for TV and movie promos.

    This is in some way surprising? 99% of respondents saying they don't want to watch ads on TV they're paying for? That 76% of them say they watch commercials they find a
  • And I have my wife's permission to say so!
  • TV Advertising (Score:2, Informative)

    by jcnnghm ( 538570 )
    There has been a lot of concern about DVRs destroying the advertising model TV is based on. I don't think that will happen. I did take the time to reprogram my comcast dvr remote to add the 30 second skip feature ( http://dcortesi.com/2005/05/04/motorola-dct6412-c omcast-dvr-30-second-skip/ [dcortesi.com]) but I watch a LOT more TV now then I did before I got a DVR, and while I regularly skip the commercials, I don't every time and I'm pretty sure the extended amount of time I spend in front of the TV more than makes up
  • aww but you forget (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Turn-X Alphonse ( 789240 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:26AM (#13091101) Journal
    Most idiots don't have a clue but claim they do. That's why so many people get hurt or ruin things doing DIY. Where as the true experts who do know what they are doing get so sick of the idiots they end up not caring for what they know about.

    So sure Mrs. Smith might claim she knows how something works, but I claim to know how a clock works yet have no clue beyond "cogs and stuff" (to put it as simple as possible).

    To claim knowledge does not mean you have it. It means you claimed it.
    • > That's why so many people get hurt or ruin things doing DIY

      How true .... (nurses the sore sholder that had an air conditioner land on it after he helped a friend pull it out of the wall and not realise it weighted at least 80kg)

      My lesson was .... if you want to move anything built in the 70's (or earlier) ... use a crane.
  • For Sale [ebay.com].

    /shameless plug

  • by Ellen Spertus ( 31819 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:41AM (#13091177) Homepage
    > "55 percent claimed they understood the system > more than their husband." I understand my current DVR (DirecTivo) at least as well as I understand my husband, but the previous system I maintained (MythTV) turned out to be almost as bewildering to me as women are to some Slashdotters. Ellen
  • by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @01:50AM (#13091223)
    I think a lot of people are confusing the intent of the article when it speaks of woment "understanding" the technology. Whenever you speak of a particular product, keep in mind there are nearly an infinite layers of "understanding" one might have.

    To a user, "understanding" means knowing how to fully unitilize a product's features. This is not a completely illegitimate point of view. Software engineers think that they understand the DVR because they know how the code works. I'm guessing that hardware engineers could make a pretty good case that, compared to them, the software engineers don't really "understand" the machines either. It's also a pretty good bet that marketing and advertising executives think that they "understand" the DVR, since they know how it's positioned in the marketplace, etc, etc.

    You get the point... Understanding is in the mind of the beholder.
  • by xihr ( 556141 )
    55% means women control it? Who failed math?
  • by danon ( 179211 )
    Your post says 1000 MARRIED women while the study says 1000 DVR users divided equally by sex.

    This is a key point here:
    a. You're surveying both men and women (which might seem obvious, but not from your post) - which is important because you're trying to claim to compare men and women habits - right? You can't do that if you only survey women.

    b. You're surveying a specific slice of people: those who bought DVRs - this already profiles the people you're surverying: certain income range, certain education, a
  • by pappy97 ( 784268 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @02:17AM (#13091317)
    "Three-quarters of the women surveyed said that the reason they fell in love with DVR is that they are extremely intuitive and much easier than a VCR.""

    Think about it. Women (And many Americans, male and female), back in the day of the VCR, couldn't figure out how to set the clock. (P.S. I wonder if this is why most DVD's players don't have a clock. Sure you don't need a clock on a DVD player

    If given a TV properly hooked up to a VCR, and the remote for the VCR, and nothing else, you should be able to SET THE CLOCK within five minutes. If you can't, you should be shot.

    And we are giving these people MORE technology? I think there is a strong argument that people don't deserve to get the new tech toys if you can't understand simple things like setting the clock on the vcr.

    I remember back in the day when I used to watch a lot of the Annenburg-CPB Channel (Sue me. I can't get enough of The Mechanical Universe and its simple HS level calculus applied to physics AND Mireille in "French in Action."),

    They used to advertise a show and the clip they showed was interesting and I always got a kick out of it:
    A bunch of college grads (All disciplines), at graduation, were handed a simple light bulb, ONE wire, and a battery, and asked to light up the bulb (basically create a very basic circuit).

    All but one showed couldn't do it. They even said it was impossible. After we saw one guy figure it out, they'd cut to a professor asking (paraphrasing),
    "If college educated graduates don't even understand the basics of electricity, what does that say about a society that tremendously relies on electricity?"

    I am even suggesting that most people should be allowed near a computer, until they get a good understanding of it (hardware and software). That, however, would have the impact of putting Best Buy's rip off techies, "The Geek Squad," out of business.
    • Sigh. The reason people don't set the timer on their VCRs is not that they are dumb, or unable to deal with technology. It's that the timers are very poorly designed, with arcane interfaces, and most people simply don't care or have time to futz with them. Flip your argument around. If a regular, intelligent adult can't set a clock on a VCR within 5 minutes, the engineer who created the clock should be shot.

      This is precisely why we should be giving people DVRs - not just MORE technology but BETTER technolo
  • Ask Oprah (Score:5, Funny)

    by rworne ( 538610 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @02:31AM (#13091372) Homepage
    I could not believe my ears when I was at Fry's one day and my wife asked me about TiVo and why we didn't have one.

    So I asked her to repeat herself and she did. She then wondered if I had ever heard of one and I replied that I certainly did know what one was - but with the lifetime service and the cost of the unit, it would be nearly $500 when we were done with it.

    She seemed disappointed. I was again in shock. Why the hell was she interested in a piece of "geek gear"? The answer was: Oprah talked about it one day and said how neat it was.

    I then replied "Did Oprah talk about how cool those new 2.5GHz Powermacs are? The ones with the new huge cinema displays?

    All that got me was a dirty look. Still, by the end of the month we had a new TiVo. And TiVo - it's TV HER way.

  • i would like to see a study on what percentage of scheduled vcr recordings are done by women. my mom would used to always record tv dramas and soap operas on tape so that she can watch them later. for me, i just watched whatever's available on tv at the moment and hardly ever use the vcr to record and watch later.
  • gender roles (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mbius ( 890083 )
    Lifetime says most women understand their Tivo system better than their husbands.

    I wonder what percentage of these take-charge independent wives feigned absolute helplessness at the prospect of hooking the unit up.

  • by payndz ( 589033 )
    A friend of mine and her boyfriend just bought their first flat, rather than renting. One of the first things on the agenda (before they even moved in!) was installing satellite, with a Sky+ DVR and a setup that allows different channels and recordings to be watched in different rooms.

    In a week and a half, my friend has gone from practically tech-illiterate to Mistress of Sky+, so that she can watch every episode of Most Haunted the box can find in one room while her boyfriend watches sport in the other.

  • Make a geek version quick! Make it difficult to understand, use buzzwords .. instead of "record video" it should be "register video on hdd" and instead of "play" it should be "play file now", that should scare them from alienating your DVR !

    Act now, write now to your favorite DVR maker!
  • While we don't have a DVR, we do have an AVR, or Analog video recorder. Also know as a VCR. My girlfriend uses it all the time to tape shows that she doesn't want to miss. I on the other hand don't worry so much about missing shows, and rarely tape anything. I like some shows and watch a fair amount of TV, but I generally don't care if I miss an episode.
  • A study by Lifetime is going to show a bias towards women.

    Now I can tell you that my wife probably uses the PVR more than I do but I built it (mythtv) so I think I understand it a little. I just have less time to sit in front of the TV and watch anything.
  • "Honey, tape the game for me.... then go get me a beer... and then make me dinner." Seems to me like their in control of the DVR. //just kidding, karma killing
  • by Suppafly ( 179830 ) <slashdot@sup p a f l y .net> on Monday July 18, 2005 @10:17AM (#13093193)
    55 percent claimed they understood the system more than their husband.

    And I'm sure we can take them at their word.

The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh

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