What People Watch

We all know about binge watching, but it takes different forms. Some viewers will watch all episodes of a series the day it drops. Others take a weekend. And some spread it out over a week or longer.

Table 1: Finishing a series on day of release is uncommon
Source: Barb. Selected programmes where entire series were made available on day of release.

The idea that audiences watch a whole series in one day is particularly compelling, but the data in table one prove that audiences are more restrained.

We can identify different bingeing patterns using our data. Binge viewing is driven by several factors, including:

• Series life-stage (i.e. debut or returning series)
• Familiarity with cast/subject matter
• Series length
• Episode length
• Release patterns/day of drop

But how do we arrive at a figure to show the degree to which viewers binged a series? Our focus is on the speed at which audiences to a final episode build, using the assumption final episode viewers are likely to have seen all or most of the preceding episodes.

Taking the total audience to the last episode over 28 days, we can count the number of days taken to reach 75% of this figure, allowing for the fact that some viewers will not binge. A lower figure indicates a greater binge factor, a higher figure the reverse.

Series life-stage: audiences watch debut series more slowly

When audiences are not yet acquainted with a series, they are less likely to binge. They don’t know the story. They aren’t yet rooting for the characters. There is no cliffhanger to be resolved from a previous series.

Chart 1: Audiences are slower to binge debut series
Source: Barb March 23rd – April 19th 2023

Netflix’s The Night Agent demonstrated this. Audiences were significant but were spread over the 28 days after drop. Viewers took 19 days to meet our definition of bingeing.

Familiarity with cast/subject matter increases the likelihood to binge

Closely related to series life-stage is the audience’s familiarity with the content. This can come in different forms, but most obviously a returning series.

The audience to Clarkson’s Farm series two on Amazon Prime Video builds more quickly at drop. The shape of the chart is clearly different to what we see for The Night Agent.

As well as being a returning series, we also have Jeremy Clarkson, whose several decades on our screens make him a familiar face. Audiences only took 16 days to reach 75% of the final episode’s 28-day audience.

Chart 2: Returning series build anticipation for audiences and promote bingeing
Source: Barb February 10th – March 9th 2023

What you may also notice about Clarkson’s Farm is that there were eight episodes, while The Night Agent had ten.

Series and episode length need to combine at the right level to promote binging

We might think that audiences will binge a series with fewer episodes more rapidly. Beckham, on Netflix, was only four episodes long. Surely audiences would get through the series in short order? Actually, they took the same 16 days that they took to watch Clarkson’s Farm. What is causing this then? Surely Victoria Beckham and her husband David are at least as familiar to the British public as Jeremy Clarkson? And we have half the number of episodes.

This may be true, but episodes of Beckham averaged 72 minutes compared to just 44 minutes for Clarkson’s Farm. So, we need our binge factors to combine in just the right amounts to produce the ideal conditions for binge viewing.

Chart 3: Good Omens, series 2, hit a bingeing sweet spot
Source: Barb July 28th – August 24th 2023

The second series of Good Omens from Netflix hits the sweet spot. We have a returning series, a well-known cast including David Tennant, Michael Sheen and the ever-popular Jon Hamm. Episodes averaged 49 minutes, but there were only six of them. Added to this, the series was dropped on a Friday, giving audiences the whole weekend to get into the series.

Audiences took just 14 days to reach our definition of binge viewing in this case.

Release patterns can prevent bingeing

This brings us to release patterns and day of drop. Disney+ has consistently released its flagship programming with a double-header followed by weekly episodes. This means bingeing of the whole series is not possible.

Chart 4: Viewers still catch up when content is drip-fed weekly
Source: Barb August 23rd – October 10th 2023

With the latest Star Wars spin-off, Ahsoka, it’s clear to see when new episodes became available. We can also see that each episode continues to amass viewing across the 49 days shown. Audiences are not watching episodes immediately on the day of release. They join at different times to catch-up, as they do with a broadcast series.

Day of drop is a factor here too. Disney+ released episodes on Wednesdays. While that provides a good run into the weekend, it also serves to spread audiences out over multiple days. Perhaps this regular interaction with the service is what Disney+ was after.

Having seen series where binge viewing is possible and where it is not, we can consider a hybrid. The BBC broadcast The Gold, on BBC One, in February and March 2023. All episodes were also made available on BBC iPlayer at the same time.

Chart 5: Broadcast is still vital
Source: Barb February 12th – March 26th 2023

Given the opportunity to binge, viewers mostly declined. Not all viewers – falling audiences to the broadcast of each new episode is evidence of that. But it is equally clear that the day of broadcast is where audiences are concentrated. This is still true even for episode six, which had been available on iPlayer for 35 days before broadcast.

Reality bites for binge viewing

Binge viewing is an appealing concept. Audiences love a programme so much that they cannot wait to rush through a whole series. Producers like the idea they have made something irresistible. Channels and services like commanding the attention of an audience.

However, reality is reflected in the data. Hardly anyone binges a series in a day. Series that are burned through the fastest take two to three weeks for audiences reach the finale. And only then if they aren’t too long. Audiences have jobs and lives that get in the way of viewing.

Then there are the companies making and commissioning the content. Three weeks is not very long for a series costing millions of pounds to last. Subscription services can prevent, or at least delay, customers cancelling their subscription with staggered releases. That makes the all-in-one series drop less appealing. And it limits its future. We can see this in the release pattern of series like Stranger Things 4 and The Crown series six from Netflix, and weekly releases of Disney+’s major series.

Binging as a concept is great, but commercial considerations reduce its appeal for content owners. Real life restrains viewers’ ability to binge in a true sense. Schedulers can look forward to a bright future.

Doug Whelpdale, Head of Insight, Barb