British regulatory agency Ofcom has released its annual report analyzing communications industries in the UK. Among this year's findings is that personal video recorders have found their way into 15% of the country's households. And, shocking as it may seem, PVRs change the way people interact with their media.

As you can see from the chart, Brits don't spend all their time skipping through commercials and watching precorded programs. News and live sports top the list of television programs people prefer to watch live, just like everywhere else in the world.

What's more interesting is the fact that only 30% of respondents say they prefer watching movies live. In other words, most people would rather watch a movie on their own schedule, either by recording it to watch later or by renting a DVD. Not exactly rocket science, we know.

But the Ofcom study shows that 28% of PVR users say they watch fewer DVDs than they did before they got their PVR. That could be because they have a large hard drive that can store a number of movies and TV shows, giving you a wide selection of programs to view at any time. Or it might just be because you have no reason to go out and spend money renting or buying DVDs if you're already paying for TV and PVR service.

In my household, I know that we don't rent movies, or even go out to the movies as often as we did before we got our first PVR. In fact, we canceled our Netflix subscription when we got our first TiVo. How has your PVR changed your DVD viewing habits?

[via Ars Technica]