Binge-Watching & Its Effect on Television
It’s 3am on a Saturday morning and I just finished the last
available episode of ABC’s Scandal on
Netflix and Amazon Video. I watched over 30 episodes in the span of one week.
This wasn’t an easy feat. I watched in the morning, in between classes, while
doing homework, and before bed. Basically my spare time was filled with the
on-goings of Olivia Pope and Associates.
But now what? I have to wait a week in between each new
episode? (sometimes longer because ABC just loves their month long hiatuses).
What kind of torment is this? That has been one of the biggest drawbacks to
binge-watching that I’ve experienced so far. But overall, the positives outweigh the negatives.
Binge-watching is when someone watches multiple episodes or
even seasons of a show in one sitting. There has been a lot of debate over how
many episodes constitutes binge-watching. 4-5 episodes of an hour long series
and 6-7 for half hour is usually the standard. But it really all depends on the
person at hand.
Services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant Video, and
HBO Go have made binge-watching more accessible. Likewise people are utilizing
their DVRs and cable on-demand services far more (As I type this I have 5
episodes of Arrow on my DVR just waiting for me to watch them).
According to the Nielsen Company, 78% of television-viewing Americans take part in some kind of asynchronous viewing. In my personal experience, I find myself
binge-watching television more and more each year. With the pressures of
school, trying to find a job/internship, and having a social life – it’s hard
for a twentysomething to adhere to a television schedule.
However, there are some shows or special instances in which
I have to watch live. This includes
series/season finales and shows that I’m more than likely going to be spoiled
if I don’t watch live. For example, I know if I don’t watch Survivor at its
scheduled time – my twitter dashboard will tell me everything that happened in
the episode as almost everyone I know watches it. This is relative to people’s social circles and their personal
television consumption as a group.
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| The first two seasons of ABC's Scandal is available for instant streaming on Netflix. (Photo via ABC) |
In some cases, binge-watching on Netflix can actually help a
struggling series. Scandal and Breaking Bad both benefited greatly
after they were added to the instant streaming service. Scandal pulled in so-so numbers within its 7-episode debut season.
The political drama, after being added to Netflix, now pulls in an audience of over ten million viewers per episode.
Vince Gilligan credits the success of his show Breaking Bad to the instant streaming service, saying "I think Netflix kept us on the air. I don’t think our show would have even lasted beyond Season 2. It’s a new era in television, and we’ve been very fortunate to reap the benefits."
It's clear that in this new age of technology, our television watching habits are evolving and are no longer constricted to the primetime television schedule. So much so, that some networks are adapting to this new climate. ABC now offers "binge-watching weeks" in which they upload all episodes of their current shows on their website and allow viewers to stream them all week. As more and more people continue to binge-watch, it will be interesting to see how the television industry adapts and grows from here on out.
It's clear that in this new age of technology, our television watching habits are evolving and are no longer constricted to the primetime television schedule. So much so, that some networks are adapting to this new climate. ABC now offers "binge-watching weeks" in which they upload all episodes of their current shows on their website and allow viewers to stream them all week. As more and more people continue to binge-watch, it will be interesting to see how the television industry adapts and grows from here on out.
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