Key Findings

The results summarized in the following section are from the qualitative research data that was collected in this study via semi-structured interviews with college students about their perceptions, opinions, and definitions of the television landscape. The collected data shows that people are thinking about television in nuanced ways based on their own experience. It also highlights what factors of the modern television landscape participants emphasize the most.

Research Questions:

RQ1: How do people describe the concept of television with an increasing domination of subscription-based television?

RQ2: When describing the current television landscape, what characteristics do consumers emphasize?

1. How viewers define television in the age of streaming...

Participants share and describe the modern TV landscape in nuanced ways that are informed by their own experiences.

Participants generally expressed that the television environment has become an entity that is dominated by streaming services. Through cord-cutting practices, a significant amount of participants acknowledged that streaming is solely what they consider to be television in the modern landscape. However, other responses indicated that their definition of television is inclusive of older means of watching television such as through a cable box and cable subscription. These respondents also explained that they use streaming but indicated that it was a separate television entity. They described that cable television is what they primarily consider to be television despite the increased domination of streaming platforms. This shows that people have their own concepts for television based on their means of viewing.

2. Access and convenience highlight advantages to streaming...

People describe how they are generally in favor of the development of streaming versus broadcast and cable because of different themes surrounding access and convenience.

This finding supports both research questions as participants expressed the wealth of content that can be found easily across several platforms. Access and convenience were emphasized as key characteristics around streaming because participants indicated that they could get the variety of content they want to view on various devices and platforms. Smart TV's, Video Game consoles, laptops, and tablets were described as the means people are utilizing to watch television and participants stated they appreciated the ease of access these devices offer. Interestingly, DVR was included as a means to watch television and participants implied including this feature as streaming despite that technology being associated with cable television.

3. Binge-Watching is a significant characteristic to modern television viewing...

Binge-watching was emphasized as a key characteristic as to how people are viewing television.

People expressed they feel it is a regular practice and something that has become socially acceptable. Interview participants indicated that binge-watching has become the norm for how people tend to view television content because of streaming services and their availability. They also indicated that binge-watching has become so profound because the nature of how things are released invites that style of viewing. This suggests that binge-watching has risen to a level of prevalence that people are heavily associating the characteristic as a common modern television behavior.

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4. Streaming service content is generally preferable to cable content

Interview respondents generally believed that content found on streaming services and premium channels are typically preferable to content that airs on broadcast and cable television.

Interview participants iterated that most often the quality of content that can be found on platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Amazon Prime Video is better than what they would find on broadcast networks like NBC, ABC, and CBS. In most cases, participants indicated that they agreed completely with critical recognition and preference toward original programs that appear on streaming platforms and premium channels. They generally agreed that content is made better because these services are allowed to push the envelope of creativity and not have to adhere as strictly to FCC guidelines as cable television. While some responses claimed that quality was not necessarily the primary reason behind saying streaming service content is better than content on broadcast and cable television, they expressed that streaming and premium content is generally superior. This suggests that an emphasis of strong content that exists on streaming platforms and premium networks is what responses are acknowledging as a key characteristic of modern television.

5. There is a negative sentiment surrounding the decentralization of television...

Interview participant attitudes toward the decentralization of television content are mostly negative

The decentralization of television content is a trait of streaming that is becoming more prevalent as more streaming services are created. Interview participants expressed frustration towards the dispersal of television content all over the landscape and most participants would like to see a more centralized means of obtaining content. Participants disliked the notion of paying for a plethora of streaming services in order to view content that they have an interest in seeing. While they initially stated that ease of access is one of the things that they emphasize as far as characteristics in the modern television environment, they do not like how it is seemingly going to become more decentralized with new services. Participants noted that they would like to see one place that has all the television content they want, but some also realized how unfeasible that may be. The interview respondents classified access and convenience as important characteristics of the modern television landscape, but in expressing their frustrations with the decentralization of content they emphasized that content will become less accessible with more services to choose from.

Figure 4: Participant response to the decentralization of content

Limitations

The research instrument used in this study was more than adequate and enabled internal validity. The interview guide allowed for quality data collection through a series of well-thought out key questions and probes. This research study was accompanied by a number of limitations that naturally come through qualitative research. External validity cannot be applied to this study as the group of participants that contributed to the sample population is too small and as a result is not representative of a greater population. Each interview lasted roughly between 30 minutes to 45 minutes. This was another limitation of the study as longer conversations would have potentially provided a lot more information to analyze and encounter more patterns as more data would have been available. Some interviews were conducted over video conference platforms rather than in a face-to-face environment because of the restrictions that came with the COVID-19 crisis. A convenience sample was used for the information gathering process which implies that the sample does not have geographical diversity.

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