Life After Cable:Viewing Behaviors of

Cord-Cutters

Stephen Warren

Existing literature on individuals that cancelcable services is almost entirely limited todissertations and theses. Typically, thesepapers focus to the reasons for becoming sucha consumer. Using in-depth interviews withcord-cutters, this study focuses on theseindividuals to better understand their currentviewing behaviors, as well as their currentmotivations for watching particular content.The purpose of this research to identify if anydifferences exist between those with cable andthose that choose to eliminate the service.

Intro

RQ1: What are the viewing behaviors of cord-cutters?

RQ2: How does a cord-cutter’s environment(devices, content options, etc.) affectvideo consumption?

RQ3: What does “a good show” mean to cord-cutters?

RQ4: How can future content better satisfy thedemands of cord-cutters?

RQ5: What are cord-cutters’ attitudes towardsbinge-watching?

Research Questions

“A person who cancels or forgoes a cable tele-vision subscription or landline phone connection infavor of an alternate Internet-based or wirelessservice.” (Oxford, 2015)Almost a third of survey respondents in 2013considered cancelling cable ("Video Streaming,"2013). Although television viewing is declining,consumption of video is not; it is shifting to digitalplatforms (Nielsen, 2014).As the amount of cord-cutters continues to grow,television research should focus on more thanwhom is likely to transition and why (Banerjee,Alleman, & Rappoport, 2013). The purpose of thisstudy is to better understand the underlyingcharacteristics of cord-cutters that affect how andwhat content they choose to watch.

What is a Cord-Cutter?

One logical research direction may be to explore the uses andgratifications sought by cord-cutters, as studies focusing onsimilar technologies have done.

TelevisionTelevision is used for entertainment, consuming time, andgetting information (Ayyad, 2011), with information being leastimportant (Green, 2014).

VCRUsers were found to value content and be more active viewersthan those of traditional television (Levy, 1987).

InternetOffering very similar gratifications as television, the Internetadds social gratification (Stafford, Stafford, & Schkade, 2004).

Cord-CuttersApplying this to cord-cutting, users may seek the samegratifications as television users, but focusing more on beingactive and the particular content viewed. Additionally, becauseviewing alternatives to cable are often online streaming serviceslike Netflix, Internet’s social gratification may be involved.

Uses & Gratifications

“With any new social phenomenon, scientistsare scrambling to catch up with humanbehavior” (Rutsch, 2015).Binge-watching research is even more scarcethan cord-cutting research. As such, studieshave not consistently defined term, despite itsaddictive properties (Devasagayam, 2014) .

Video streaming is often associated with bothbinge-watching and cord-cutters. Therefore,greater understanding of these individuals’bingeing behaviors and attitudes could greatlyfacilitate research in these areas.

Binge-Watching

Despite disliking the service and cost, many peopledid not make the cord-cutting transition until theymoved into a new home.

This motivation to switch could be a result ofstatus quo preference (Chernev, 2004). Pre-vention-focused people tend to maintain theirstatus quo (cable service). Moving may have shift-ed them to being more promotion-focused andmore likely to choose the status quo alternative(streaming).

Further, those that could now easily afford cableclaim that only specific factors would make themget cable again (living with others, better service,etc.). Thus, they have developed a new statusquo.

ThemesPro Quo, Not Cost

“I sold my house and moved to a condo, and I decided I alwayshated my cable. So, I decided I wouldn't get it over here, and if itbothered me, that I know they’d sell it to me… and I love nothaving, love not having it. It is fabulous.” –Tina

“moving from a group of people who regularly use TV as a groupto a one person studio… TV costs a lot of money (laughs).” –Jennifer

“the customer service experience was extremely poor (laughs),and, ‘it angered me so,’ she says – kindest words I can choose.With that, I did step back in the midst of the chaos of moving andgo, ‘whoa, just a minute. What are my other options?’” –Bridget

When asked about what wouldmake her get cable again:“it’d have to be a company that you want to work with…You feellike you’re getting a value for it. I never felt like I got a value forit, and you just have to fight with them, and they're a horriblehorrible company. Um… I can't think of anything that’d make meget it back. World War 3? (laughs)” –Tina

ExamplesPro Quo, Not Cost

Another theme was how the intervieweesfound and watched new shows. Withoutcable, people stated that they had difficultykeeping up to date with what shows were onand when. Social media became a primarysource for new show information.

There seemed to be a desire to at least “checkout” as many shows as possible. This couldsupport the idea that these newer tech-nologies encourage more active viewing,previously termed the “TV lifecycle” (Brown,2006). Almost everyone enjoyed having con-versations about shows with others anddeliberately watched new shows to do so.

Themes“Whatever the kids are talking about.”

“I mean I should know, by all rights, I should bewatching my House – the ‘House of the Cards,’ ‘TheOrange is the New the Black,’ the ‘UnbearableKimmy Johnson,’ or whatever the, whatever theheck it is that the kids are talking about.” – Dylan

“I did try to watch Glee the other day. It poppedup on Netflix… and I remember, you know,everybody talking about it” –Tina

“groundbreaking, iconic, more-than-pop-culturetelevision that someone should experience wouldkind of be my filter. Um, stuff that I might re-commend to my parents like, ‘you need to watchthis. You need to experience this.’” –Bridget

Examples“Whatever the kids are talking about.”

Live, weekly shows were given more leeway bythe interviewees. People were more willing to“see where the show was going.” Something thatwas non-existent for the more condensed viewingof streamed shows.Interviewees said that watching weekly allowedfor richer conversations about the shows,whether it was “water cooler talk” or app-ointment viewing with social media. Conversely,the conversation about streamed shows focusedon simply if a person had seen it or not.Applied to uses and gratifications theory, thiswould suggest that cord-cutters may seek socialgratification, as well as actively choosing whatcontent to watch. However, the traditional TVgratification of consuming time may not be asimportant, since most did not want to waste timewith bad shows.

ThemesThe Cultural Conversation

“They’re not shows that I really love that much…just sort of ones that I find mildly entertaining like,or they grew on me. Mindy Project grew on me.New Girl grew on me. Big Bang Theory… when Ihad a little more time, I started to follow it.” –Dylan“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was one of the few shows Iwas really, really glad that… I watched it in realtime… just like, being immersed at the time andwith other people who are watching it made a realdifference for me.” –JenniferWhen asked why he dislikes condensed watching:“we're not talking about it from episode-to-episode. We're saying… it's just almost likepeople are just consuming it the way a whaledevours plankton.” –Dylan

ExamplesThe Cultural Conversation

Everyone had binge-watched at one time oranother, but the theme that emerged was thatthey only did so when time allowed. They werevery aware of the activity and usually chose not tobinge when other activities took priority. Binge-watching was frequently used as a copingmechanism for boredom (stretches of poorweather) or procrastination.

This would suggest that binge-watching may beless of an addiction and more of an alternativeactivity. However, many interviewees confessedthat they needed to force themselves to stop attimes to complete other tasks or errands. So whilebinge-watching may not be an addiction, it maypossess some addictive properties.

ThemesBingeing? It Depends…

“on a normal day, I wouldn’t necessarily do that(binge). But just you know, with this terrible weatherwe've had, it's like I said, just a great excuse to say,‘okay, I'm not going out.’ And I won't even go checkmy mail (laughs) I would just hang out in my little houseand just be a happy little girl!” –Tina“like, think of all the things I could have done all daytoday while I was sitting watching 30 Rock for tenhours (laughs). I don’t know, like I should’ve donelaundry, I should’ve done this, I should’ve done that…Especially during the winter, when there’s like, noreason to leave the house except to forage for food.” –Kaley“binge watching would mean watching multiple showsin succession without any stop. But I don't know if Ihave like, some sort of number... And I only really bingelike, if I have the time” –Jennifer

ExamplesBingeing? It Depends…

These interviews suggest that there is morethan simply cost associated with the decisionto make the transition away from cable.These people clearly know what they want,and that is evident in their viewing behaviors.The quicker abandonment when watchingstreamed shows may indicate that weeklyprogramming was still the preferred methodof consumption. This is further supportedwhen considering that these people preferredto talk about shows that they watched at thesame time as other people. This reinforcesthe idea that cord-cutters may consider socialgratification part of their TV experience.

Implications 1

Binge-watching, while often employed, wasviewed as being simply an alternative to otheractivities. Additionally, these people chose to par-take in binge-watching only when they had thetime. This would suggest that binge-watching mayhave some addictive properties, but that it is notequal to these other behaviors. Although the in-terviewees admitted that binge-watching wassometimes a way to procrastinate and avoidother errands, traditional TV viewing has beenfound to be used similarly (Ayyad, 2011). Dylan feltthe same, calling TV, “a giant, you know, fiftydollars a month procrastination tool.”

Implications 2

In-depth interviews performed over two months.Recruiting was done through email and word ofmouth following the university’s IRB approval.Participants were incentivized with a drawing foran iTunes gift card.Participants were required to currently not havecable and to have paid for cable at one time.Those that have never paid may have differentattitudes on cord-cutting, since cutting the cordmay have been someone else’s choice.Interviewees were between 24 and 45 years old.These recorded interviews were transcribed andcoded for similar themes. Using the researchsoftware Nvivo, four themes emerged.

Method: Interview

This author, one month prior to data collection,cancelled cable and became a cord-cutter, citingcost as the most important reason. One detrimentof this could have been the need to be aware ofany personal bias against cable services. However,one advantage was a greater understanding thatother factors influence this transition greatly,allowing for better rapport with the interviewees.

Another limitation was the amount of peopleinterviewed. Finding individuals that had paid forcable in the past proved difficult in a universitysetting, as many have been provided the serviceon someone else’s dime. Nevertheless, theemerging themes appeared to reach some level ofsaturation, despite this difficulty.

Researcher Role

Title: Life After Cable: Viewing Behaviors of Cord-Cutters

Author: Stephen Warren

Program: Media Studies

Email: smwarren@syr.edu

Contact Information

Although cost was a major factor in cutting the cord,those that could afford cable stated that the quality ofthe costumer service was a main reason for not gettingthe service again.

“I'm convinced… they train their people to lie… theyare just aghast that you are having a problem, and thatsomebody hasn't been able to fix it, and they willabsolutely get it done. And then, you hang up after anhour on the phone with them, you hang up, andnothing gets done.” –Tina

Poor Service

Nearly all interviewees mentioned House of Cards as a show thatwas “binge-worthy.” However, when the show’s third season didnot impress as much as previous seasons, some stopped theirintended binge. Those that did not stop seemed to treatwatching the season as a chore rather than entertainment.

“I did it one weekend when it launched, but that's an anomaly…I was still recovering from a pretty nasty flu, so it kind of lent itselfto just relaxing and you know, that was my rationalization for it…and I didn't really need to. Actually, that particular season wasn’tas strong as the first two. So, I think if I hadn't been, if I'd beenfeeling better, I probably would have been able to walk awayfrom it a bit more then I did.” –Bridget

Binge-Worthy?

While people would stop streaming shows online that they did not like,they continued to watch weekly network shows they did not favor. Somewould keep watching in the hopes the show would improve. Otherswould “hate-watch” a show to make fun of it within the cultural con-versation.

“It's just pure – Gotham – pure, pure hate-watch… Honestly, by the time,by mid-September, by probably the third week I realized, “okay, this showprobably isn't going to get any better.” But, I felt like the cement hadhardened, and I felt like I’ll watch this any way… that was, I sort of, wantto see where they were going... I think that, I mean that's part of it. Nowbecause they're getting rid of one of the weakest characters on the show,now there's hope that it might get a little better.” –Dylan

“Hate-Watching”