In 2013, Netflix created a new way to consume television programmes, allowing viewers to choose from a wide and diverse range of content and watch episodes of television series on demand (Starosta & Izydorczyk, 2020). Binge viewing is defined as “the focused, deliberate viewing of continuous television content over an extended period of time that is often narrative, suspenseful, and dramatic (Rubenking & Bracken, 2021).” Netflix’s release of House of Cards can be considered the starting point of this strategy, unlike the usual weekly format, Netflix released a whole season of 13 episodes in one fell swoop, greatly satisfying viewers’ appetites. This ahead of the curve and bold strategy led to Netflix’s success and therefore retained more subscribers.

During the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the world was regulated to prevent and control the epidemic, and in this situation of not being allowed to go out, Netflix’s original content resources attracted a lot of subscribers from all over the world. There’s no denying that binge viewing is toxic for users. According to Statista, Netflix has approximately 247.2 million paid subscribers worldwide as of the third quarter of 2023. Personally, I think Netflix also attracts a lot of subscribers with its original series, such as Squid Game, Black Mirror, Kingdom, Stranger Things, and other highly rated, quality-produced videos that continue to attract subscribers.

Netflix is not only involved in TV series but also anime. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean is the first time on Netflix. This is an example of what I consider to be a very failed binge viewing approach to this anime, as he broke the story up into three seasons and released them all in sub-batches over the course of nearly two years. The platform chose to only release new content after extremely long intervals between batches, which essentially eliminated the hype the show had built up before its debut in late 2021 (Llewellyn, 2022). So much so that viewers were stuck in a very uncomfortable middle section of the story after viewing all 13 episodes, and many viewers thought it was odd that Netflix released the animation in three batches but still looked forward to the story’s exciting development.

The discussion of how Netflix is changing our viewing patterns is already a hot topic, and we can’t rely on binge viewing for emotional pleasure and mental enrichment. However, there’s no denying that binge-watching has gradually become an everyday after work pastime.

Thank you for your patience in reading and feel free to discuss and give your opinion in the comment section! See you in next blog 🙂

Author: Xinyu Ge

Idea base on Week 4: Netflix, Binge-viewing and Internet distributed film and TV

Bibliography:

Llewellyn, T. (2022) Third and final jojo’s stone ocean anime part set to release on Netflix December 1, HITC. Available at: https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/11/30/jojos-bizarre-adventure-stone-ocean-part-3-release-window-teased-in-blu-ray-news/?n=%5C (Accessed: 26 November 2023).

Rubenking, B. and Bracken, C.C. (2021) ‘Binge watching and serial viewing: Comparing new media viewing habits in 2015 and 2020’, Addictive Behaviors Reports, 14, p. 100356. doi:10.1016/j.abrep.2021.100356.

Starosta, J.A. and Izydorczyk, B. (2020) Understanding the phenomenon of binge-watching-a systematic review, International journal of environmental research and public health. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7344932/ (Accessed: 26 November 2023).