binge watching

Lots of us have time off the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and there’s only so much time you can spend with your family, right? In this age when there’s so much great TV to watch, this is a chance to catch up on shows you’ve missed, enjoy old shows worth revisiting, and just lose yourself in binge-watching … something.

A new study from GfK MRI Research finds that 57% of TV watchers have engaged in regular bingeing of shows in the last 10 months. That’s up 12%, and it includes subsets of 18% who “frequently” binge shows more than half the time and 25% who “sometimes” do, Wayne Friedman reports.

Using data from more than 190 countries between October 2015 and May 2016, the survey offers a rare peak into Netflix’s closely guarded audience metrics. It divided titles into two categories — “savored” and “devoured” — and found that median viewing time for a Netflix user watching one title was two hours and 10 minutes per sitting.

Forrester Research says there is some topping out of binge viewers when looking at three factors:  the percentage of viewers who engage in the behavior; the number of times per month they binge; and the number of viewing hours per session.

TV programmers have noted the phenomenon that Netflix has created by binge releasing much of its programming, and Daniel Holloway writes that they’re following suit. On April 10, Starz will simultaneously release all 13 episodes of The Girlfriend Experience from Steven Soderbergh, while Showtime will release all six of its new Dice episodes with Andrew “Dice” Clay. TBS, TNT and NBC have also been experimenting with the release mode.

Deloitte’s 10th edition of its annual Digital Democracy Survey find that 70% of American consumers binge watch television, and roughly a third of respondents do so on a weekly basis. The study also finds 46% of U.S. consumers subscribe to video streaming services.

U.S. networks are changing the way they develop and release new shows, and even commercials, as they seek to adapt to new TV viewing habits and profit from the binge-watching made popular by video streaming services like Netflix.

TV binging is growing. But while it can bring much joy to consumers, it can also bring the blues. A new study on TV binging by TiVo Research says that 52% of those surveyed are “experiencing feeling sad” when they approach the end of a TV series.

Now that we’re three seasons into “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black,” it appears that binge viewing has had its “moment.” When both of these series premiered on Netflix, what truly set them apart, aside from their nervy brilliance, was their presentation: You could watch as many hours as you wanted. But the reality is with a Netflix series, there is no shared experience, which, let’s face it, is one of the great pleasures of watching television. When we get to the climax of the story, we want to talk about it the day after. It’s a kind of celebration.

Speaking Thursday at Re/code’s Code Conference, Periscope CEO Kayvon Beykpour said that people using the live-streaming app have created 380 years’ worth of broadcasts in the eight weeks since Periscope launched. A big question: As live-streaming apps gain mainstream popularity, will binge watchers still have time for traditional TV?

The news that the network is going to let people binge-watch the entire new David Duchovny series immediately following the debut of the first episode over the air reduces the NBC affilates — and the O&OS — to carnival barkers. If broadcasting is going to continue to thrive, the networks need to give it their full attention. For its part, NBC should be sharply focused on improving primetime, it should not be dabbling in the binge-watching business.

A University of Texas study shows  people who binge-watch are more likely to be depressed and lonely. The UT-Austin researchers found that the more lonely and depressed the study participants were, the more likely they were to binge-watch TV.

Americans are increasingly engaging in a practice known as television binge-watching — going through several episodes of a TV show in a single stretch. I used some recent trips to finish Showtime’s Dexter and start CBS’s The Good Wife. In between, I breezed through Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black and the second season of House of Cards. I have about 50 series on various watch lists — and people are continually recommending more. I know what I’ll be doing this Labor Day weekend. So why am I unhappy about this new way to watch TV?

LONDON (AP) — Don’t know what “vaping” is? How about “listicle”? Perhaps it’s time to get to know them. Britain’s Oxford University Press said Thursday it is adding the words […]