Netflix Study on Binging Reveals When Viewers Get Hooked
Our Take:
Netflix is known for not sharing viewership information about its shows, to the chagrin of TV critics and industry folk alike. But what it is offering is a study mined from its treasure trove of data detailing when it believes viewers become hooked on a show while binging. It’s not at the pilot stage. Far from it, in fact. As this Fast Company article reports, it might be the fourth, the sixth, or the eighth. Netflix defines the turning-point episode as the one that, after having been watched, 70% of viewers continued went on to consume the rest of the season. Check out the full graphic here. There’s also some fun insights about viewers in other countries. For instance, the Dutch fall for shows quickly and the French were really into “How I Met Your Mother.” As the article suggests, all this is a bit of a slap in the face toward the traditional TV model which depends heavily on the success of a pilot. Netflix is saying, by contrary, the pilot is not when you develop true “fans.”
For viewers, the benefits of having the entire season of a TV show dumped onto a streaming service like Netflix for binge consumption are obvious: Who doesn’t want to sink back into their sofa and watch episode after episode of their favorite show, emerging hours later-bleary-eyed, borderline catatonic-when work or family calls?
