Online Streaming Changing the World of TV

When Robert Peaslee and his wife Kate sit down in front of their TV on a Friday night, they’re not watching cable or satellite because they don’t want to, and also, they can’t. The Peaslees are one of the growing numbers of families that have cut the cord.

“We don’t have cable. We don’t have dish,” the associate professor in the journalism and electronic media department said, “we just have a digital antenna for local.”

Peaslee, Ph.D., said he thinks it’s unnecessary to pay for an excessive number of channels that he won’t fully utilize. He said he hardly watches any network TV because anything network produced he wants to watch is available on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime, accessed through a Blu-Ray player.

The professor isn’t the only one opting for a “streaming-only” household.

Percent of cord cutters in the US - from Experian Marketing's Analysis Report

Percent of cord cutters in the US – from Experian Marketing’s Analysis Report

An estimated 6.5-percent of U.S. households, or 7.6 million homes, today are “cord cutters,” meaning they have high-speed Internet but no satellite or cable, according to Experian Marketing Service’s cross-device video analysis report.

Experian’s analysis showed a 44-percent increase from 2010, when 5.1 million households (4.5-percent) were strictly streaming.

“It’s only going to increase as people sort of come along through the progression that I’ve gone through, in terms of the way I view television,” Peaslee said, “and I’m old, so young people probably came to this place before I did.”

According to Experian’s report, out of households inhabited by young adults under 35 years of age, 12.4-percent are cord cutters – almost twice the national average. Taking into account those young adults who don’t pay for TV and also have access to either Netflix or Hulu, the number is increased to 18.1-percent.

Melissa Hurley, a senior early education major from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, compared network cable to the now almost extinct home telephones.

Hurley said she thinks eventually people will only need to use online streaming services, like a lot of people she knows today only use cell phones.

However, the new technology of streaming videos online has not necessarily sentenced television to its death. Experian reported that 94-percent of adults in the U.S. still watch some sort of video content on a TV each week.

Maybe the days of complete cord cutting are not upon us yet, but according to Peaslee, the normal definition of ‘television’ is in transition.

“I do think things are changing,” Peaslee said. “I think that producers are more and more conscious about the fact that viewing habits aren’t what they used to be, and they’re going to have to try to change their delivery practices to meet that demand.”

He said that the players most undermined by these changes are basic cable and network providers, especially since Netflix is starting to make its name as an original programming powerhouse.

“I do think that these streaming services are really pushing the cable providers to keep up…”

“Netflix was nominated for 32 Emmys,” Peaslee said. “That’s crazy, right?”

He said, due in part to Netflix’s popularity and recognition at this year’s 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, people are becoming aware that good television can be made without a major network or film studio.

“I do think that these streaming services are really pushing the cable providers to keep up,” Peaslee said, “and to keep making sure that they’re producing quality programming that can compete with ‘House of Cards’ or things like that.”

Netflix’s original programs aren’t limited to new, award-nominated series. The streaming service has used its online platform to bring cancelled shows back to life, making dreams come true for fans of shows like “Arrested Development” or “The Killing.”

Peaslee said these shows that have a smaller, but more heavily devoted, fan base were killed before their time because they couldn’t deliver ratings from a mainstream audience, like the traditional broadcast model strives for. Thanks to the emergence of a new type of audience, they are now able to get a second chance.

Robert Peaslee discusses online streaming and the future of television in his office.

Robert Peaslee discusses online streaming and the future of television in his office.

“We’re in the era of the niche audience now,” he said. “Instead of it being about getting the biggest audience possible, now it’s about getting an active, devoted, affluent audience.”

Peaslee said these types of niche TV shows can succeed on the Netflix platform because no one is trying to sell advertising for it but instead just trying to make content more interesting for subscribers.

“It doesn’t have to have a huge audience for years and years to be profitable anymore,” he said, “and I think that’s really exciting because that means there’s a greater diversity of programming available than there would be otherwise.”

Today, TV shows no longer rely solely on ratings to be considered successful, and viewers no longer have to wait an entire week to catch a new episode of their favorite show.

“The whole binge-watching phenomenon – that’s kind of one of the ‘buzz words’ of our time,” Peaslee said. “It just got added to the Oxford English Dictionary.”

The associate professor said he thinks the ability to watch TV shows episode after episode is great.

“The binge-watching thing really helps because you can engage the narrative at any speed you want,” he said. “There are some narratives that are better experienced all at once, if you can pull it off.”

Kathryn Kilgore, a senior nutritional sciences major from Fort Worth, Texas, said she is an avid binge-watcher because it makes it easier to follow the story.

“It’s like reading a book all at once, instead of one chapter at a time,” she said.

Netflix has taken a cue from the binge-watching phenomenon by releasing each season of its original programs like “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards” all at once.

“The online streaming delivery platform allows for those kind of stories to be made in a way that is profitable…”

Peaslee said this is driving a new kind of television writing that allows for a more expanded story universe with a finite story arch, and the story can be told in as long of time as it takes.

“That serves the story, and that makes for better stories,” he said. “The online streaming delivery platform allows for those kind of stories to be made in a way that is profitable because you know, if you can produce good product, people will pay for the service.”

However, our generation’s ability to binge watch entire seasons of TV shows has lead to a newfound issue of “spoiling” stories for other people.

“That’s a symptom of these changes in technology,” Peaslee said, “that we have the ability to spoil is purely a product of being able to come into the narrative at different times, depending on when we discover it and how fast we watch it, and so forth.”

Image from digitaltrends.com

Image from digitaltrends.com

He said that today, everybody is a potential spoiler, which is why people have started warning each other with “spoiler alerts” in any online article, blog and tweet that discusses details of a show.

“There’s this newfound code of ethics in terms of how you talk about shows, so you don’t blow it for the other person,” Peaslee said, “and that’s new.”

With an increasing number of cord-cutting households and the access to more diverse, better quality programming, Peaslee said this era has made for a much more empowered user.

“Anything that puts the power into the hands of the viewer,” he said, “to me, is a good change.”

About Nicole Crites

Entertainment Director - Senior journalism major from Fort Worth, TX