Five years ago, I began this project as a work of spite. My original title for the book was “The Cord Cutter’s Guide to the Galaxy.” I was determined to help cleave the cord for as many people as possible and free them from the high costs of their home entertainment.
I continued to follow the drama surrounding the cratering of the Cable industry. Absent the vindictive anger of my original intent, I gradually grew to understand what was lacking in this scramble to “Cut-the-Cord.”
What is Cord-Curation?
During our transition to curation, we understood the value of the conscious consumption of our entertainment calories.
It started as a financial exercise to control the rising costs of those calories.
We began with two questions.
- What does our family consume from the buffet?
- How much are we paying for it?
The Viewing Self-Assessment
What Kind of Viewer are You?
Are you a Zombie Grazer, mindlessly scanning from channel to channel between commercials, gorging yourself on as many shows as possible?
Maybe you’re a Discerning Time Shifter, sampling only items you like and viewing them with your DVR at your own pace?
Or a Voracious Gobbler, shoveling as much of your favored content into your brain as possible? Do you immediately binge on the entire season the day it drops on your favorite Streaming services?
Are you a Fresh and Live Aficionado who prefers the freshest offerings, chilling in the premium section?
Do you choose to watch your programs live or on same-day viewing?
What kind of viewer am I?
After thoughtful introspection and behavioral observation, I sometimes identify with all these viewing types.
For professional and college football games and sports, I always prefer to watch live games and would never consider watching a Super Bowl or World Series game on the DVR.
But, while watching football, I’m often a Zombie Grazer skipping from game to game between commercials, trying never to miss a relevant play.
Sometimes, I’m a Voracious Gobbler trying to consume every available T.V. episode.
I am also a Discernible Time Shifter and prefer to watch most of my series and movie programming from my DVR or one of my Streaming services. Fast-forwarding through commercials is the most significant value I received from my cable service, and I would miss it the most.
Now it’s time to discuss your goals with your household and gauge their reaction to joining the Cord-Curation revolution.
The Family Viewing Survey
What is my family watching during a typical week?
Assign each Family Member a weekly diary.
Have them log what channel, time and program they are watching.
What is my family watching during a typical week?
Assign each Family Member a weekly diary.
Have them log what channel, time and program they are watching.
- Is this a program they watch regularly?
- Is it a live broadcast, viewed on the DVR, or bundled from a streaming service?
Be as honest as possible; if their preferred program is not part of the discussion now, it may not be there once the cord curation changes begin.
Post Family Viewing Diary Assessment
This is when we discuss the findings of each family member’s weekly viewing diary and understand what you’ll need to do to satisfy the family’s appetite for the least amount of money.
What are we watching?
Review the week’s programs with your family.
How many programs does your family watch on broadcast or local channels?
How many programs are on Basic Pay channels?
How many programs are on Premium Channel Programs?
How many programs are On Demand or PPV?
How many are there from DVR?
How many programs are there from Streaming Services?
How many hours of family viewing?
Your Family Viewing Survey results will show you the items on the Grand Buffet your family regularly consumes and how they consume it.
Don’t Panic
No matter how refined your family’s taste buds are, remember there may be alternative ways to find that content.
With some research and sweat equity, you can find low-cost ways for your family to continue consuming from the buffet’s Premium end.
Review each family member’s diary:
Note what programs they regularly watch on basic and premium cable channels.
- Do these networks have online ways to access their content?
- How many programs are they watching from Streaming Media services?
- How often do they watch programs from the DVR?
This will help determine what to add to your system before cutting the cable package.
Family Viewing Habits
Now, with an idea of the Family viewing habits, you can calculate how much you’re paying for what you’re viewing and if you can benefit from cutting the cable package and taking control of your entertainment choices.
As we reviewed our Family Viewing Assessment, we identified the cable networks and programs we regularly watched or had committed to our DVR.
What did we shovel onto our plates from our Grand Buffett?
We watched on average only 22 out of 400 available channels.
Our cost per channel watched was $6.36 (2018 rates)
52 regular programs on DVR and streaming services $4.18 per program (2018 rates)
Prime charged $2.99 per program streamed (2018 rates)
(A comprehensive description of our process in calculating these costs is available in The Cord Curator’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Our Big Fat DVR
We had thirty-four series programming scheduled to record first run and rerun episodes making up the belly-fat on our Cable-TV services DVR which we paid a hefty monthly ransom to keep available.
Entire seasons of programs we could never find the time to sample remained captive to the Cable companies increasing fees.
Now that we have a better idea of the calories we consume and the costs associated with feeding from the buffet, we can understand our ultimate Return-On-Investment (ROI) as we free ourselves and become conscious consumers of our entertainment diet.
Become a guild member and join the curation revolution
Next week: We will explore– How We Reaped the Wind for Free Content and share the first steps our family took to reap the winds of an amazing amount of free content broadcasting in our market.
TODAY’S QUESTION:
What is your Family paying to feast from the Grand Buffet?
Please share in the comments.
This article contains excerpts from
The Cord Curator’s Guide to the Galaxy
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