"Arny Krueger" wrote

Some of the charts reflect trends in Europe and the UK, but not in the
USA. Central heating and washing machines have been at the 90%+ level
since or before the 1950s in the US. Even people living at or below the
poverty level had them. I surprised by the difference when I lived in
Germany in the 1960s.

That has a lot to do with the after-effects of WW2. The US had built up huge
industrial production capacity during the war which could be easily turned
to manufacturing consumer goods after 1945. Much of Europe, though, had been
devastated by the war. The immediate post-war priority was rebuilding
housing and infrastructure.

DVRs are very common in cable boxes that are used in the US. I believe
that some US cable-TV networks don't even offer cable interfaces that lack
DVR features.


Similarly here. The Sky HD box is only available with DVR functionality, I
beleive the same is true for some cable STBs. For historical reasons cable
has never been significant in the UK, most people get their TV over the air,
either from a UHF aerial (Freeview) or a satellite dish (Sky or Freesat).

David.