Binge Watching

Binge watching is the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television show, movies in a series, serialized YouTube videos, or any sequence of video media en masse, usually through digital streaming or DVDs. Binge watching has an increasingly popular phenomenon since the launch of Netflix, a video streaming service often used for binging. The term was popularized in 2013 following a decision by Netflix to release entire seasons of television programs rather than releasing episodes individually.

History

The term binge watching first appeared in the late 1990s and can likely be attributed to box sets of television programs. Usage was not popularized until the creation of on demand viewing services and online streaming sites . Companies such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime allowed users to watch entire seasons of programs at their leisure by publishing full seasons of television shows, both from popular networks as well as original content. Netflix has offered online streaming since 2007, winning Emmy nominations and awards for its own original shows released in 2013. It has been a worldwide service since 2016 . Hulu launched as a streaming service in 2008 and has also created its own original shows, one of which has been nominated for a Golden Globe . Amazon Video began as Amazon Unbox on TiVo, a service to download videos onto a TiVo . The video service was rebranded as Amazon on Demand, then as Amazon Instant Video in 2011, free to Amazon Prime users and poised to take on Netflix and Hulu . More recently, television networks have begun following this model as well, posting entire seasons of shows on their online platforms. For example, the network Freeform put their entire 10 episode season of the show "Beyond" online and were ready to approve a second season within eight days .

Watching TV vs Binge Watching

In a 2014 Netflix study, 61% of people said that they regularly binge watch, with 73% of people defining binge watching as watching 2-6 episodes of the same television show in one sitting . The Atlantic, however, crowd sourced to define binge watching as watching 4 or more episodes in one sitting, claiming that 2 episodes were too few to describe as a "binge" . One person watched 120 episodes in 4 weeks, which comes to just over 4 episodes per day, while another watched 29 episodes in 2 weeks, or 3.5 episodes per day . The consensus seems to be that somewhere between at least 3 or 4 episodes in one sitting constitutes binge watching and not just watching TV.

Culture

Netflix Binge Pairings

While most people see binge watching as something done by millennials, it is consistent across generations, although more prevalent in ages 18-34 . While watching a few episodes might constitute binge watching, many people will watch an entire series in one or a few sittings. It is then common practice to take a "breather," or a break of at least a day, between shows. The average break size is 3 days. In this break, many people will turn to movies to continue watching something without starting a new show, with these movies often staying within the genre of the show they just finished . Netflix also says that users who finish the first season of a show typically finish that season within a week, needing to watch about two hours a day to do so. The median amount of time to finish any season of a show is four days, demonstrating how quickly the binge watching phenomenon has caught on. The most common shows that are binge watched this quickly fall into the categories of horror, thrillers, or sci-f. People who watch political dramas, irreverent comedies, or historical dramas are more likely to finish a season within six days.

Ethical Implications

Sharing

Many of these online streaming sites, like Netflix, state in their terms of service that account owners should not share their account information with anyone else, though their interface promotes sharing by allowing users to create multiple profiles on a single account. But the sharing doesn't stop there either, as anyone can watch on any profile once they have the account password. Therefore, when people share passwords for these online streaming sites, it allows multiple people to use one account and watch as much as they want. In order to prevent mass viewing of content on a single account, however, these companies often restrict the number of streams allowed on one account at a single time. Sharing passwords raises many ethical concerns, privacy for example, as anyone with the account password would be able to see everything that each profile on the account has been watching. Furthermore, in July 2016, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that deemed sharing passwords a federal crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This affects sharers of passwords on these online streaming sites, though as of yet there has been no indication that companies like Netflix and HBO Go will prosecute users who share passwords .

There have also been issues with streaming sites being slowed down by internet providers, such as Comcast slowing Netflix.

Binge watching can be distracting and keep people from other tasks that they're supposed to partake in, such as homework or other obligations.