Binge-watching
Binge-watching is the practice of watching entertainment or informational content for a prolonged time span, usually a single television show.
Statistics
Binge-watching overlaps with marathon viewing which places more emphasis on stamina and less on self-indulgence. In a survey conducted by Netflix in February 2014, 73% of people define binge-watching as "watching between 2–6 episodes of the same TV show in one sitting". Some researchers have argued that binge-watching should be defined based on the context and the actual content of the TV show. Others suggested that what is normally called binge-watching in fact refers to more than one type of TV viewing experience. They proposed that the notion of binge-watching should be expanded to include both the prolonged sit and the accelerated consumption of an entire season of a show, one episode at a time, over several days.Binge-watching as an observed cultural phenomenon has become popular with the rise of video streaming services in the 2006–2007 time frame, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu through which the viewer can watch television shows and movies on-demand. For example, 61% of the Netflix survey participants said they binge-watch regularly. Recent research based on video-on-demand data from major US video streaming providers shows that over 64% of the customers binged-watched once during a year.
History
The first uses of "binge" in reference to television appeared in Variety under the byline of TV industry reporter George Rosen, in 1948, according to archival research by media scholar Emil Steiner. The term "TV binge" first appeared in a U.S. newspaper on July 27, 1952, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Sports editor Ed Danforth used the term to describe a Bob Hope–Bing Crosby telethon to raise money for the U.S. Olympic team. While the term "TV marathon" was used frequently in the 1950s, "TV binge" rarely appeared in English language periodicals from 1952-1986 and was most commonly used as a side effect of technological improvements in broadcast television around multi-game sporting events such as the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, the Olympics, and the World Cup. An October 1970 Vogue trendspotting feature described how people were talking about "the television binge of sports with more networks finding live action healthier than canned plots."Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump, founded in 1968, developed a successful formula of publishing individual manga chapters and then compiling them into separate standalone tankōbon volumes that could be "binged" all at once. This Jump formula produced major Japanese pop culture hits such as Dragon Ball, One Piece and Naruto. According to Matt Alt of The New Yorker, "Jump presaged the way the world consumes streaming entertainment today."
The practice of binge-watching was previously called marathon-watching. Early examples of this practice include marathon viewing sessions of imported Japanese anime shows on VHS tapes in anime fandom communities during the late 1970s to 1980s, and Nickelodeon's Nick at Nite which broadcast multiple episodes from Donna Reed and Route 66 in July 1985.
The first printed usage of the term "binge viewing" appeared in a December 1986 Philadelphia Inquirer last-minute Christmas list by TV Critic Andy Wickstrom who suggested Scotch tape to mend worn VCR tape if "you're a confirmed weekday time-shifter, saving up the soap operas for weekend binge viewing." This first use of "binge viewing" as a gerund predated "binge-watching" uses by nearly a decade. The first known usage of binge-watching as an active verb is credited to GregSerl, an X-Files Usenet newsgroup commenter. On December 20, 1998, he posted a mock questionnaire that asked X-Files fans "Do you ever binge watch ? Despite that usage, Steiner argues that "binge viewing" is a far closer synonym to binge-watching than marathon.
The usage of the word "binge-watching" was popularized with the advent of on-demand viewing and online streaming. In 2013, the word burst into mainstream use to describe the Netflix practice of releasing seasons of its original programs simultaneously, as opposed to the industry standard model of releasing episodes on a weekly basis.
In November 2015, the Collins English Dictionary chose the word "binge-watch" as the word of the year.
At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, there was a noticeable surge of Netflix binge watching. Lockdown made it so that those stuck at home turned towards spending their time catching up and re-watching television series.
In a comparison study, Bridget Rubenking observed that traditional appointment viewing had decreased from 2015 to 2020. Rubenking noted that all three types of viewing, binge watching, serial viewing, and appointment viewing, were at an all-time high during the start of the pandemic. These circumstances contributed to a rise in the number of individuals who adopted these habits.
Cultural impact
Actor Kevin Spacey used the 2013 MacTaggart Lecture to implore television executives to give audiences "what they want when they want it. If they want to binge, then we should let them binge". He claimed that high-quality stories will retain audience's attention for hours on end, and may reduce piracy, although millions still download content illegally. Binge-watching "complex, quality TV" such as The Wire and Breaking Bad has been likened to reading more than one chapter of a novel in one sitting, and is viewed by some as a "smart, contemplative way" of watching TV. A recent study found that while binge-watching, people feel "transported" into the world of the show, which increases their viewing enjoyment, makes them binge-watch more frequently and for longer.ITV Director of Television Peter Fincham warned that binge-watching erodes the "social value" of television as there are fewer opportunities to anticipate future episodes and discuss them with friends. Nevertheless, research has shown that heavy binge-watching does not necessarily mean less social engagement. One study found quite the opposite, reporting that heavy binge-watchers spent more time in interactions with friends and family on a daily basis than non-binge-watchers. Heavy binge-watchers are used by others as sources of opinion about what shows to watch and they often engage in conversations about TV shows both offline and online.
Research by Alessandro Gabbiadini et al. explores psychological factors contributing to binge-watching, highlighting loneliness, escapism, and identification with media characters as key motivators. The study suggests that viewers turn to extended series consumption as a means of escaping negative emotions or forging parasocial relationships with characters. These tendencies are amplified by the episodic nature of series, which facilitates prolonged engagement and emotional investment, distinguishing binge-watching from traditional film-viewing experiences.
Kristina Šekrst explores why binge-watching TV shows is psychologically easier than watching long films. Šekrst highlights that the episodic structure of television series, combined with natural breaks between episodes, provides a sense of accomplishment and refreshes viewer attention, making prolonged viewing sessions more manageable. She contrasts this with films, which often demand continuous engagement without breaks, leading to cognitive fatigue. This episodic pacing aligns with contemporary viewing habits, where streaming platforms encourage binge-watching by auto-playing the next episode, fostering a seamless, immersive experience.
Research conducted at the University of Texas at Austin found binge watching television is correlated with depression, loneliness, self-regulation deficiency, and obesity. "Even though some people argue that binge-watching is a harmless addiction, findings from our study suggest that binge-watching should no longer be viewed this way," the authors conclude. Cases of people being treated for "binge watching addiction" have already been reported.
Research published by media scholar, Dr. Anne Sweet, Ph.D., underlines that binge-watching is a form of compulsive consumption, similar to binge-eating, or binge-drinking, and that due to its addictive aspects, it could even represent a form of TV addiction. These findings were problematized by Pittman and Steiner, who found that "the degree to which an individual pays attention to a show may either increase or decrease subsequent regret, depending on the motivation for binge-watching."
Research conducted by media scholar Dr. Emil Steiner, Ph.D., at Rowan University isolated five motivations for binge-watching. The author concludes that while compulsiveness is possible, most binge-viewers have an ambivalent relationship with the nascent techno-cultural behavior. Furthermore, he argues that the negotiation of control in binge-watching is changing our understanding of television culture.
Research conducted by Technicolor lab in 2016 found that a binge-watching session does increase the probability of another binge-watching session in the near future. In the meantime, the majority of people will not immediately have another binge-watching session. This indicates that binge-watching is not a consistent behavior for real-world video-on-demand consumers.
Viewing an entire season of a show within 24 hours of its release has become common. According to a 2018 survey of adult TV watchers, 29% reported having done so. Among those aged 18–29, the number increases to 51%.
Conversely, some streaming service original shows may be negatively affected if viewers do not binge watch-them. Many viewers of the Netflix original series The Sandman watched episodes more slowly, but Netflix measures viewer engagement only over the first 28 days after release. This led to uncertainty over whether the series would be renewed for a second season, though it eventually was renewed.