Streaming wars: Is the binge model losing favor with viewers?
By Sabrina Reed
When Netflix broke through the pop culture noise machine, TV lovers were used to the week-to-week model of watching television. In order to binge a series, you needed to have access to box sets of a show.
Whether bought or borrowed, the viewing experience depended on the discs not being scratched and all of them being in the case in order to have a good time. Netflix changed that with subscribers having the ability to sit and watch their favorite series at their convenience without needing physical media to do so. It was a new and exciting frontier.
Subscribers who tuned into the platform’s original series didn’t have to wait until the following week for a new episode. Also, unlike broadcast television, they didn’t need to worry about checking to see when a rerun would air if they missed a premiere date. Once a series released, all episodes were available on-demand. And just like that the streaming era was born.
Streaming is shifting from bingeing back to weekly release
Fast forward to today, with Netflix now engaged in direct competition with Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, Prime Video, Peacock, and more, the binge model of viewing TV on streaming has been thrown into question.
When the platform’s competitors arrived on the scene, they didn’t exactly follow its example. Instead, they’ve been working on how to improve streaming and calibrating the experience to their subscribers’ taste. This isn’t simply being done with content, it’s also being done through release windows.
While Netflix is still primarily a binge platform with exceptions made for international titles and reality TV originals, the other streamers have been perfecting a hybrid model.
Some shows release their episodes all at once while others release episodes weekly. There’s even been experimentation with debuting two to three episodes of a series on its premiere date in order to give viewers a better sample of what to expect from their content.
If this sounds like a tweaked version of the week-to-week release that’s prevalent on broadcast television, that’s because it is. Netflix’s binge model ushered in a new way to digest content, however, with the platform releasing more and more original content on the regular and other streamers entering the race, consumers have increasingly become overwhelmed.
Not to mention, with competition steeper than ever, the longer a streamer’s show can stay in mainstream conversation the better. That’s been hard considering our voracious the TV watching audience can be. Some series pop while others become flashes in the pan. But, viewers have still become accustom to the binge model of streaming even with the changing culture around it.
How have the varying models worked out for the streamers so far in 2022? Are weekly releases starting to gain more of a foothold in the streaming wars? Here’s what we know!
Is the binge model losing favor in the streaming era?
According to data collected by ReelGood, a company that aggregates users’ streaming services and watches in one place, weekly releases are winning.
Using data collected between January 1- May 15 of this year, ReelGood was able to determine what model of viewing has been more favored in the first half of 2022. This is based on how many weeks a show stayed in the Top 20 most watch series during and after its debut on streaming.
Notably, six out of the 20 series are actually broadcast shows that either simulcast or are available to watch next day on their respective streaming homes which pads out the weekly releases’ lead significantly.
With the competition being as steep as it is, there are only three Netflix originals on the list.Ozark managed to snag a place in the Top 10 but Inventing Anna and Bridgerton fell short, only holding onto their spots in the Top 20 for 4-5 weeks, respectively.
IP takes up a prominent portion of the top shows with The Book of Boba Fett, Halo, Moon Knight, and Peacemaker, carrying weekly favor with streaming audiences.
As evidenced in the data collected, the binge model, with exception to Reacher and Ozark, seems to be keeping original series out of the Top 10 shows.
The advantage of weekly releases is that the conversation continues because new content is available that expands how viewers are talking about the show. The more people talk about a series, the more others want to tune in. The name of the game is word-of-mouth, or in this era, social media engagement. Reactions go viral, memes have more of an opportunity to propagate, and the herd doesn’t move on as fast.
This, of course, doesn’t mean that shows that can be binged as soon as they premiere can’t find an audience or become the talk of the web. Netflix isn’t short on series that have a hold on pop culture conversation. Bridgerton is still a huge franchise hence its multiple season renewal after its first season blew up and the upcoming prequel about Queen Charlotte.
Stranger Things, arguably the streamer’s most successful series, eclipses pretty much everything whenever a new season comes out. Not to mention new kids on the block, Heartstopper and First Kill, have garnered quite a bit of attention for the streaming giant. But, it does seem that the weekly release model is carrying more and more favor with audiences.
As the chart shows from Jan 1. – May 15, the Top 10 most watched shows were overwhelmingly weekly releases. Only two were binges, Ozark and Prime Video’s Reacher. So, while Netflix has no intention on switching up its release model, it’s not a format that the other streamers need to adhere to or should given how the hybrid model has been working well for them. Especially Disney+ and HBO Max.