Binge watching entire TV shows is in jeopardy as the new streaming market toys with TV-like weekly releases of episodes to retain customers across months to counter subscription losses.
With the latest releases of Disney + and Apple TV +, there has never been a time with more competition in the ever growing market of streaming. Even with the market growing and adapting to consumers wants, one thing has stayed the staple of streaming. Binge watching, or watching multiple episodes of a show in a row, has always been at the heart of streaming.
When a new show comes out, many consumers including Aadil Manzair watch it all in a short period of time. Manazair said, “I don’t watch many shows, but when one does come out, I watch multiple episodes in one sitting and finish it in less than a week.”
This habit of watching most of a TV show in one sitting could be dissolving, not because of consumers, but because of providers and companies themselves. When Apple and Disney released their own platform, they decided to buck the norm and not release entire seasons of their headlining show all at once.
Apple decided to release shows like The Morning Show and See with three episodes at the launch, with new episodes released once a week after that on Thursday. Disney followed Apple’s plan by releasing an episode The Mandorlian episode every Friday with a few episodes moved to Wednesday to help advertise their blockbuster Star Wars movie releasing in late December.
It all has to do with the economics of streaming.
Companies prefer this business model much more than the standard streaming model, even with potential for consumer backlash. If the consumer watches an entire season of a TV show in two days, they will not need to come back to service to watch the show again. However, by releasing on a weekly basis, it forces the consumer to return to the platform repeatedly for months in order to finish a season.
This model is eerily similar to regular TV with its weekly episodes, which is not necessarily a bad thing for some students.
Dilan Nair, a Senior who watches tons of shows in his free time said, “Especially during the school year, I feel like I can keep up with a show with only one episode a week without feeling stressed to finish the season to avoid spoilers.” This model allows companies to get multiple months of dues from a consumer instead of potentially nothing because of seven day free trials with access to the entire season.
He mentioned other positives from the standard weekly release too. Nair said, “In my mind, weekly releases make the series more gratifying and more engaging as people analyze and speculate an entire week before the next episode drops.”
With many different viewpoints on how shows should be released, it will ultimately come down to which strategy will be the most advantageous to companies’ profit margins and ability to retain and gain market share as major new players enter the streaming wars.
