Binge Watching? You’re Not Alone.

After my daughter became familiar with Netflix and could access it on her own, I noticed an interesting behavior.  She caught up on  4 seasons of Good Luck Charlie over a period of 6 months.  She just watched one show after another.  Later, I noticed Twilight Zone, The Original Series is on Netflix…in fact Seasons 1, 2, 3, and 5 are available.  I couldn’t wait to share my favorite childhood show with my kids.  I started watching one show after another with my son and daughter.

I’ve come to find out that there’s a term for this type of TV show watching called “binge watching.”  Binge watching apparently is quite common with 61% of TV streamers stating that they binge watch regularly (based on a survey from Harris Interactive (1)  of 1,500 TV streamers who stream TV shows at least once a week).

Here are some interesting facts that came out of this survey:

• 73% define binge watching as watching 2-6 episodes of the same TV show at one sitting
• 73% feel very positive about this action and don’t feel guilty about binge watching
• 76% feel binge watching gives them a refuge from their busy lives
• 79% feel shows are more enjoyable when you watch several shows one right after another
• 76% believe watching shows when they want to watch them…on their own schedule is preferable
• 31% prefer binge watching by themselves
• 51% prefer binge watching with someone else
• 65% would still want to watch TV, even if they took a digital time out

Netflix hired a cultural anthropologist, Grant McCracken, to study the evolution of binge watching.  McCracken noted about binge watching individuals…

“But this TV watcher is different, the couch potato has awoken. And now that services like Netflix have given consumers control over their TV viewing, they have declared a new way to watch.”

Netflix has made multi-show viewing possible and opened up a whole new way to watch shows at your own pace. In fact, according to Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer at Netflix, they create all of their original series for multi-episode viewing, so viewers can watch several shows at once and not be held hostage until the next week’s show comes out.

McCracken goes on to say…

 “TV viewers are no longer zoning out as a way to forget about their day, they are tuning in, on their own schedule, to a different world. Getting immersed in multiple episodes or even multiple seasons of a show over a few weeks is a new kind of escapism that is especially welcomed today.”

TV has always thrived on cliffhangers to get you to come back the next week.  But we have too many cliffhangers in our own lives.  TV viewers want more control in when (and where) they watch TV, as evidenced by the popularity of TV show streaming.   Netflix provides this capability for many shows, including their own original content, Disney kids shows, and the previous seasons of many popular shows like Bones, The Office, Mad Men, Pretty Little Liars, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Cake Boss, and more.

Miss those great 80’s TV shows?  You can still find many of them on Netflix.  See our article, Favorite 80’s Shows on Netflix for some good ones.

So now that’s Summer is here and you have a “little” more free time, which shows will you be binge watching?  How about your kids?

(1.)  https://pr.netflix.com/WebClient/getNewsSummary.do?newsId=496

*    I am a member of the Netflix Stream Team and was provided with streaming service for my time. All thoughts and opinions are my own.