Netflix is the most popular and successful streaming platform generating 225 million subscribers worldwide, it gives viewers access to television programmes without advertisements in-between and weekly breaks between each episode. Instead, you can get access to full seasons of your favourite programmes. With platforms such as Netflix comes the new practice and methods of watching television i.e., Binge watching gives you the option to watch two to six episodes of a show in one sitting. Netflix promotes binge-watching through their design “next episode in 5…4…3…2…1…continue watching” the short time frame between the episodes gives the viewer less time to decide. Therefore the start of new episodes encourages them to continue “just one more episode” … until they’ve finished the series entirely. However, it can also be understood that binge-watching gives control to the viewers (M. Jenner, 2018) something they do not have when watching live cable television.

Regarding the television programme, binge-watching can be damaging to its overall performance, as viewers binge the show and after the initial first week or two of the release the hype generated around the show has faded, until the next season – this could mean less viewing of the series after the initial release as it is not spoken about as much to encourage any new viewers… until the hype is generated again for a new season. Netflix misses out on the week-to-week buzz.

The most streamed English-language TV show on Netflix was Stranger Things within the first 28 days of viewing on the platform it generated to over 1.3 billion hours. Until the most recent season, Stranger Things had been releasing all episodes of a season at once for their viewers on Netflix. But with the wait of 3 years between the last season and the recent release of season 4 Netflix generated the hype leading to the release and for the first time split the season release with a one-month gap in between. The first 7 episodes, Vol.1 was released on the 27^th of May 2022 and left on a cliff-hanger to keep viewers hooked to wait and come back for Vol.2 which was released on the 1^st of July 2022, the time between the episodes allowed the conversation of the series and hype to stay alive and not be bust within a couple weeks.

References

Jenner, Mareike. Netflix and the Re-Invention of Television, Springer International Publishing AG, 2018.

Davis, Brenna C., “The Netflix Effect and Defining Binge-Watching” (2016). Undergraduate Research Posters. Poster 190. https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/190

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