The way in which we consume television has changed dramatically over the last several decades, from having virtually no control over what you could watch on the TV during the network era, wherein viewers had next to no technological control and barely any control over content, to the present day in which almost every TV series is readily available, immediately, whenever you want it, on whatever device you may want to consume it on. Lotz (2014) suggests that this transformation in consumption came as a direct result of multiple different factors. Digital technologies allowed for “televisions, computers and other home technologies to converge” (2014), and the digital transmission of TV helped eventually bring TV to the internet, allowing everyone to have access to everything on one platform conveniently and “efficiently” (2014). HBO may have been one of the first successful cable viewing platforms, but Netflix was the first platform to find success in the online streaming world. Netflix followed the HBO model, with its original programming, but as Lotz notes, it allowed for binge viewing (2014).

This model changed the way in which people consume content, with the hype around original shows like “Stranger Things” (2016) being staggering. With Netflix providing people with the choice to consume TV at their own pace, other traditional TV providers saw that binge viewing had become the most popular form of consumption, and thus they replicated it as to not get left behind. However, ‘HBO MAX’ has been seen to challenge this new model, through the use of weekly releases of their original content. The most notable recent example of this being ‘The Penguin’, with weekly episode releases resulting in the hype around the show building up in the same way that traditional broadcasts did.

The Netflix binge viewing model allows for constant streaming for anyone, resulting in spoilers and the quick loss of interest around shows, yet HBO MAX’s weekly release schedule not only creates anticipation and excitement for the next week, but sustains audience engagement, a problem that many may find with Netflix’s binge viewing model.

Duffer Brothers, Stranger Things. 2016.

Lefranc, Lauren. The Penguin. 2024

Lotz, Amanda D. “Television Outside the Box: The Technological Revolution of  Television”, in: The Television will be Revolutionized, 2nd edition, NYU Press, 2014, 53- 94

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