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Utah TV watchers moving away from scheduled programming, Comcast says

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SALT LAKE CITY — More than three-fifths of Utah cable customers are using electronic devices such as digital video recorders to watch television on their own time, according to third-party study results released Tuesday by Comcast.

Also, only 40 percent of Utah residents surveyed intend to watch fall's prime-time shows when they actually air, researchers with International Communications Research found in an annual study.

Overall, there has been an 85 percent increase in the number of people using "time-shift" technology, compared with three years ago, said Comcast spokesman Ray Child.

Time-shifting technologies include DVRs, which 65 percent of Utah households own, video on-demand, which 67 percent of households can access, and programming available via the Internet.

Nationally, about 62 percent of TV viewers intend to use those technologies to access prime-time content this fall. Those surveyed were especially excited for new shows such as "Hawaii Five-O," "No Ordinary Family" and "The Event."

In Utah, survey respondents were most interested in those shows plus old favorites such as "Glee," "Modern Family," "The Good Wife" and "Mad Men."

Unlike the rest of the nation, Utah viewers were more interested in comedy than drama, but then favored movies, news and education, sports and reality programming, in that order.

e-mail: rpalmer@desnews.com