Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

Singe Your Binge
Singe Your Binge
Singe Your Binge
Ebook96 pages1 hour

Singe Your Binge

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

We've all been there, sprawled across the couch in the small hours of the night and our latest favorite TV show drops a bomb of a cliffhanger. You really should go to bed, tomorrow was the day you were going to start doing that productive thing—the new exercise routine, start writing, clean your room. Yet, the overwhelming stress of the cliffhanger has fastened its grip around you and the only way to relieve it? Continue watching. "Go on. Just one more episode," whispers the devil on your shoulder; the angel has already pressed play to start the next one. 

This has been termed "binge-watching".

LanguageEnglish
PublisherS. Maclain
Release dateMay 23, 2020
ISBN9781393192350
Singe Your Binge

Related to Singe Your Binge

Related ebooks

Self-Improvement For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for Singe Your Binge

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    Singe Your Binge - S. Maclain

    Singe Your Binge

    The Impact of Streaming

    S. MaClain

    © Copyright 2020 - All rights reserved.

    The content contained within this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author or the publisher.

    Under no circumstances will any blame or legal responsibility be held against the publisher, or author, for any damages, reparation, or monetary loss due to the information contained within this book, either directly or indirectly.

    Legal Notice:

    This book is copyright protected. It is only for personal use. You cannot amend, distribute, sell, use, quote or paraphrase any part, or the content within this book, without the consent of the author or publisher.

    Disclaimer Notice:

    Please note the information contained within this document is for educational and entertainment purposes only. All effort has been executed to present accurate, up to date, reliable, complete information. No warranties of any kind are declared or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaged in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or professional advice. The content within this book has been derived from various sources. Please consult a licensed professional before attempting any techniques outlined in this book.

    By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, that are incurred as a result of the use of the information contained within this document, including, but not limited to, errors, omissions, or inaccuracies.

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    Structural Shift

    Social Media

    Chapter 1: Origins

    Money Well Spent

    From Napster to Netflix

    Chapter 2: Netflix and Chill

    Netflix Originals

    The Netflix Effect

    Chapter 3: Binge-Worthy

    Changing the Structure of Television

    Investing Abroad

    Chapter 4: Addicted to Television

    Dr. Sleep

    The Algorithm

    Chapter 5: Video Games

    Stadia Arcadia

    Twitch

    Chapter 6: Hollywood

    Cracking the Oscars

    The Future of Cinemas

    Chapter 7: The Music Industry

    From Netflix to Spotify

    Podcasts Get Serial

    Chapter 8: The Future

    First Party vs Third Party

    The Originals

    Conclusion

    Social

    Misconceptions

    References

    Introduction

    We’ve all been there, sprawled across the couch in the small hours of the night and our latest favorite TV show drops a bomb of a cliffhanger. You really should go to bed, tomorrow was the day you were going to start doing that productive thing—the new exercise routine, start writing, clean your room. Yet, the overwhelming stress of the cliffhanger has fastened its grip around you and the only way to relieve it? Continue watching. Go on. Just one more episode, whispers the devil on your shoulder; the angel has already pressed play to start the next one.

    This has been termed binge-watching. The act of watching multiple episodes in one sitting. The term binge has, in a contemporary context, largely been used with negative connotations. Binge drinking and binge eating are two phrases that are constantly rolled out to describe health issues related to overconsumption. It’s easy to see why the term caught on when used in relation to streaming TV. Is it a fair comparison though? By tracking the origins of streaming and its effects, this book will shed some light on that.

    Streaming has revolutionized the way we consume content. According to a 2015 Deloitte study, only 50% of all video content is consumed through standard television in the 11-24 age range (as cited in Johnson & Woodcock, 2019). In 2013, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 63% of American households used a streaming platform like Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime, and, as the Leichtman Research Group found, 22% of those households are streaming Netflix at least once a week during every week of the year (as cited in Matrix, 2014). That number has only grown since, as the act of watching a TV show or a movie has been transformed into consumption, rather than investment. Even the word content was rarely used in the context it is today, where each TV show or film has become an entry in a never-ending catalog which is constantly changing like the cube in the movie The Cube (currently streaming on Amazon Prime at the time of writing, by the way).

    The catalog dictates the trends, like how Game of Thrones was once the phenomenon. Platforms have become synonymous with the hot topic of discussion. Once you’ve finished watching Ozark there’s always something else to pick up straight away. Serialized TV shows on cable networks, released one episode at a time, are becoming a thing of the past. HBO’s Game of Thrones may be one of the last shows of its kind. Having premiered in 2011, over 19 million people tuned in to watch the series finale in 2019 in the US alone. However, HBO’s critically acclaimed sci-fi series Westworld can only manage around 1 million viewers per episode as we change our viewing habits. By contrast, Netflix’s Stranger Things roped in 26.4 million for the launch of its third season.

    Over the last ten years, our viewing habits have changed dramatically. Younger generations have predominantly taken to the shift, but viewers of all ages are prone to binge-watching. Netflix itself released figures suggesting subscribers stream a collective 140 million hours of video per day. The company currently has over 182.8 million subscribers, but when you consider that there may be multiple users on those accounts, the reach is likely higher. While this subscriber number may be artificially inflated for the moment with the COVID-19 crisis, the fact that the service is instilling a particular set of watching habits in kids, as well as adults, means that binge-watching on a streaming service has become normalized.

    Amazon Prime has grown by over 50 million subscribers in the last two years, with numbers now totaling over 150 million, while new kids on the block Apple TV and Disney+ have 33 million and 54 million subscribers respectively. Apple has been giving away free yearly subscriptions with each new iPad and iPhone but, as we’ll soon see, having a subscriber base is important—keeping them there is even more crucial. There may be an abundance of subscribers who aren’t actively paying, but people will continue to buy devices and it’s much easier to retain subscribers once you have secured them.

    The result is that TV shows now arrive all at once, ready to be digested and designed to lure you, giving you a dopamine hit with each

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1