Sky today revealed that there are now 2m Sky+ boxes in the UK and at the same time gave an insight into how those boxes are used by people who once upon a time had no choice but to just slump and watch whatever the scheduler chose for them.
The research into the viewing habits of Sky+ users is eye-opening to say the least.
In Sky+ households, time-shifting across all channels accounted for an average of 12.2% of total viewing and 22% of all viewing of programmes originally scheduled between 9pm and 10pm and 17% of shows between 10pm and 11pm.
Drama is the genre most frequently recorded, accounting for 39.3% of all time-shifted viewing; documentaries accounted for 14.9%, entertainment for 13% and movies 9.5%.
The most popular Sky+ channel was FX, where 33.1% of viewing was time-shifted, followed by More4 with 27.7%, Hallmark with 24.8%, Living TV with 23.3% and ITV3 with 23.1%.
This quiet revolution has had little mainstream publicity, but if these figures were translated across the whole viewing population, television schedulers might as well collect their P45s now.
The fact that a third of viewers who watch shows on one of the major multi-channel outlets watch them at different times is frankly incredible.
Television and its shared viewing experience is often described as the glue that holds the nation together but these figures show that that glue is becoming decidedly less-adhesive.
The days when nearly a third of the population would settle down together to watch the same show, such as an EastEnders Christmas special, are long gone.
Surely I am not the only one who is saddened by this - one of the reasons I prefer to watch television rather than a DVD when I'm alone is because I know I am not the only one.
And of course it is something to chat about around that mythical central watercooler at work the next day.
The only genres that remain shared experiences are live sports and news events - and even they can now be paused or re-wound using Sky+.
Some more fascinating research - the top ten time shifted series of 2006 -
1) The X Factor - 43.4% of Sky+ viewers time-shifting the show 2) EastEnders - 42% 3) Big Brother - 38.4% 4) Coronation Street - 37% 5) I'm a Celebrity - 31.4% 6) The X Factor Results - 29.9% 7) Strictly Come Dancing - 25% 8) Doctor Who - 23.4% 9) Match of the Day - 23.1% 10) Lost (on Channel 4) - 22.4%
And the top 10 most time shifted individual programmes of 2006...
1)The X Factor - 7/10/06 - boy band Avenue are disqualified 2) Doctor Who - 8/7/06 - would saving the world mean the death of Rose? 3) EastEnders - 16/2/06 - Dot takes Pauline wedding dress shopping 4) Lost - 29/9/06 - Channel 4's season 2 finale 5) Royle Family - 29/10/06 - one-off special 6) Robin Hood - 7/10/06 - first episode 7) Lost - 19/11/06 - Sky One's series 3 premiere 8) Coronation Street - Fred's death 9) X Factor Results - 4/11/06 - Ashley eliminated 10) Spooks - 13/11/06 - season finale
What is interesting about these results are that most of these shows air early evening when people are busy doing other stuff. There are also a lot of shows that clash with each other. Most interesting is the X Factor v Strictly Come Dancing showdown - these figures suggest more people liked to watch the BBC1 show live and time-shift its ITV1 rival for later watching.
