Tiffany Basile
CJN 255: A
Professor Huntemann
March 4th 2015

1.
Television isn’t really my thing. I don’t wait on the edge of my seat for the new Orange is The New Black episodes being released on Netflix. Nor do I really have the energy to conscientiously follow multiple seasons and countless episodes of content. I enjoy being able to watch something without having to see every episode prior to understand what’s going on. I would estimate that I watch perhaps an hour of television daily. Before going to sleep at night I’ll log onto Netflix and either put on Family Guy, Criminal Minds or my newest interest, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Something I can easily follow at my convenience. I also use HBO GO to have access to movies on my laptop when I’m bored on the weekends. I still own a traditional TV’s at home. Their main purposes are to show sporting events. Sometimes I’ll watch Modern Family or a movie on them with my parents, they are the ones who still use to the TV for everything. I have a TV in my room that hasn’t been turned on in weeks. It’s kind of just taking up space on my desk. Since I still live at home with my parents, they pay for the cable. We have Comcast with On Demand but we do not have DVR. We have some of the movie channels but not all of them, I think just HBO. To access Netflix and HBO GO I use a friend’s account, she’s totally fine with me using them.

2.
I first interviewed my dad. He works as an accountant in the city and is in his mid fifties. He actually watches a lot of television. Every morning during the week he wakes up and puts the news on to check the weather, traffic and headline news. He still has a flip phone so he can’t check any current news on his phone. When he comes home from work he watches Seinfeld reruns for comic relief. Then at primetime he either watches the Bruins, Celtics and definitely the Red Sox. He watches the new series of Family Guy, The Goldberg’s, Criminal Minds, The Middle, The Walking Dead. He’s usually watching TV alone or with my mom. Sometimes he challenges my mom to Jeopardy. If there is nothing on regular TV during the week, he surfs through the movie channels. On Saturday and Sunday during football season he watches college football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday, especially the Red Zone. He also watches TVG on weekends if there’s no football on. Weekend mornings he watches the reruns of the Three Stooges and if he wakes up early enough he’ll watch the reruns of Married With Children. Every night, the TV is usually off by 10o’clock. He doesn’t have any access to Netflix or HuLu, I don’t think he even knows what HuLu is. He doesn’t watch programs on any other devices than a television. The only other device he knows how to work is our computer.

I then interviewed my mom. She works as a dining room manager at an elderly complex and is also in her mid fifties. She never watches television. She grew up with only one television in her household and with having 4 other siblings, it was almost impossible her for to watch TV. She’s more into reading books. Sometimes when she comes home from work she’ll watch Criminal Minds, Jeopardy, Mystery on PBS. She enjoys watching programs that challenge her mind. On the weekends she enjoys watching Saturday Night Live. She doesn’t know what Netflix or HuLu are and she doesn’t own any devices other than her flip phone so she only watches TV on television. Her and my dad usually will watch television together.

My experiences with my parents are just about as polar-opposite as they get. I basically only watch TV on my computer with Netflix and they don’t even know how to create a Netflix account. My dad watches TV for almost five hours each day when I only watch an hour before I go to bed. My mom is interested in those Mystery shows on PBS and I honestly don’t even know what those are. We are all interested in Criminal Minds though; maybe we should start watching it together. My parents tend to watch television together and I watch alone. They are definitely more into television than I am but I think that’s how everyone is from the older generation. They grew up as the television being the latest innovation and our generation grew up with it.

3.
In order for the television networks to survive in the new digital era they must give the control back to their audiences. Our generation wants the ability to watch the TV shows we enjoy and when we please. Television networks are still stuck in their comfort zone and haven’t adapted to this new style of viewing. The networks are leaving us with limited options; only showing certain shows at certain times or having to pay extra to watch a movie. These limitations and fees are causing people to get rid of cable. That’s why more and more people are switching over to Netflix. Netflix gives the people the opportunity to binge watch their favorite series and have access to tons of movies with just a monthly fee. Netflix understands what the people want and that’s why they’re thriving. In the next ten years, I don’t see cable TV still in existence and for a few reasons. The expense to create shows for television networks is outrageous. Every year hundreds of millions of dollars are spent to create pilot episodes for new series and over half of them aren’t successful. In Spacey’s speech he says that out of the 35 shows that make it to air, only 13 of them get renewed for a new season. Clearly, the audience is not satisfied with the content being produced by the networks. Watching content is changing for the better. In regards to the older generation, I don’t think they would be accustomed with using the Internet to watch TV. My parents are more into the tuning in once a week show and watching it with the family.