Netflix is a streaming service whereby customers pay a monthly subscription in order to avoid advertisements. Acting like a library, the viewer can choose from thousands of shows and films to watch. Netflix, along with many other companies, can be considered as ‘binge models’ (Jenner, 2018) where all episodes of a season are put online at the same time. This is, therefore, how we have come to binge watch TV shows.

In her model of flow, Perks describes how companies like Netflix can drag viewers into becoming binge-watchers. It starts with entrance flow; this is where the service uses recommendation algorithms to suggest shows that the subscriber will enjoy. Then, post-play function as well as ‘skip intro’ enable a smooth flow into the next episode so that we eventually stop noticing how many we’ve watched all together. In VICE’s video on binge watching, presenter Lee said that companies like Netflix are ‘faceless all-consuming algorithms trying to sell you more than they’ve already got you addicted to’ (Vice, 2019). By this, he means that conglomerates keep suggesting shows you might like in order to keep you binging and therefore paying between £5-10 a month on a subscription. It’s easy to forget that these streaming services are businesses when they market their product as being accessible for the viewer. Although I feel like this video comes off as quite extreme, it makes sense that binge watching is a tool used to make us keep spending money. Also, there is the argument that it’s making us addicted. Nowadays, we expect all episodes to be online at once and viewers find series’ difficult to keep up with if they have to wait a week for a new episode. We want that instant gratification and serotonin of watching a whole series in one go but is it at the expense of being capitalised by conglomerates for economic gain?

References:

Mareike Jenner (2019). Netflix And The Re-Invention Of Television. S.L.: Palgrave Macmillan.

VICE (2019). What Binge Watching Does To Your Brain | Let Lee Explain. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44maP6YAELY.

By Maddie Wood

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