Let Them Binge!

The rise of video streaming services not only changed the way that content is delivered to consumers but also the way that said content is consumed. While traditional TV channels used to release new episodes of their shows episode by episode, week after week, streaming services often grant consumers access to entire seasons at once, enabling them to watch whenever they please.

While it may take away the thrill of waiting alongside millions of fellow fans for a new episode of your favorite show, the practice of releasing a slew of episodes at once does grant viewers an unprecedented degree of freedom and flexibility. Just as consumers have gotten used to binging entire seasons in as few sittings as their schedule/social life allows, the industry seems to be moving away from this popular practice, however.

As competition intensified and big names such as Apple and Disney entered the scene, some streaming services have returned to a weekly release schedule, at least for their most popular shows, taking away one of the features that made streaming so popular in the first place. According to a recent survey conducted by Morning Consult, Americans won’t be happy with that trend. When asked how they like to watch TV episodes on streaming services, a vast majority said that they prefer to watch several episodes a day, while just 1 in 5 respondents preferred the old one-episode-per-week schedule.

As the following chart illustrates, there is a significant generational gap in how Americans want to be served their TV shows: while young adults have gotten used to the all-you-can-watch approach, older Americans are a bit more patient and most unlikely to watch several episodes at once.