Sure, Netflix Stops Bingeing, But It’s Also Making Less

When you used Netflix for the first time, was there anything more surprising than the fact that you could watch an entire season at once?

Binging — a once-overreserved term — quickly became the norm at Netflix. Whether it’s an old show like “Friends,” or a new Netflix show like “House of Cards” or “Stranger Things,” spending a rainy day and doing a few (or more) episodes is part of everyday life. Appeared as part

But now Netflix may be putting an end to the binge. Perhaps the binge days are over, as the company is considering moving away from the binge model for some releases, according to a report in this week’s newsletter Puck.

There are many reasons. Netflix faces multiple headwinds, including increasing subscriber churn, declining numbers in key markets, and of course, increasing competition. Once dominant, now we have to try new things.

But more than anything else, it may be a result of the model itself that may facilitate the transition from binge eating.

Part of what made me feel so novel about the idea of ​​releasing all the episodes of a TV show at once was, well, the novelty. distributed to us. Wait until every Thursday or Sunday night to see the latest episodes of Seinfeld, The X-Files, and The Simpsons.

The fact that we didn’t have to wait for new episodes of “BoJack Horseman” or “The Sandman” made Netflix’s then-low prices all the more appealing.

Still, logging into Netflix today may leave you paralyzed with options. With so much content available, the prospect of being able to watch six or ten episodes of him at once from the show feels more like a challenge than a benefit.

Perhaps this is why Netflix’s competitors did not follow the business model of their ancestors. Amazon’s show “Ring of Power,” a prequel to “The Lord of the Rings,” is released weekly. Disney Plus also released significant new shows every week, such as “Only Murders in the Building” and “She-Hulk.”

What it highlights is that content quality isn’t the only thing that matters in the streaming wars. What sets a show apart is the performance, the story, or the visuals.

Rather, it suggests that how to retain and capture users’ attention is now a major consideration for any content company.

From that perspective, staying away from the binge makes more sense. Releasing all his shows at once, the relevant hype cycle (social media buzz, online recaps, news stories, interviews) necessary for the property’s success lasts him only a week.

Conversely, releasing a show more staggered draws its attention over a longer period of time, making it look like a series of peaks and valleys instead of one big spike.

This was made clear by the huge success of HBO’s Game of Thrones. With its staggered release, each episode became both social media and water cooler fodder, and a particularly shocking or debated moment on the show repeatedly pushed it into the public consciousness.

All these contexts are what have come to be known as the attention economy. The attention economy is the term we attach to the idea that attention has become a scarce commodity, with everyone involved in “content” from Netflix to news companies vying for that precious resource. .

That’s why, for example, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings once said half-seriously that sleep is part of Netflix’s competition.

But it also points to the fact that the shift from binge to weekly or staggered releases is creating its own problems as streaming soars.

The paralysis of choice when opening Netflix or Disney Plus isn’t just a result of being able to watch an episode all at once. And with these companies pouring billions of dollars into content creation, they produce an enormous amount of material, making it much harder to go through it all and find what you need. increase.

Perhaps what content companies need to face is not just how material is released, but how much, counter-intuitively, is it actually created to get more attention. There is little content available.

At least an idea to consider. As of this writing, Netflix stock is down 60% from its high of $700 (US) less than a year ago. To regain the reflection of market sentiment, the streaming giant may have to do what once seemed absurd.

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