Binge It?

Most of us watch shows on streaming services. Some every day, others occasionally, and few never at all. But streaming content has its tentacles in many lives, and this is why I have found that the ‘Binge vs Weekly’ debate, a hot topic in the TV/streaming industry, is one that resonates with those outside it too.

‘Team Slow Burn’ or ‘Team One & Done’?

Reams have been written on the pros & cons of the two models. Dropping all episodes at once and letting hungry appetites devour a show? Or releasing episodes weekly (the ‘old TV way’), keeping appetites whetted, conversations going, and subscribers retained? More recently, we’ve also seen hybrid models- either binges in two-part seasons, or a clutch of initial episodes followed by weekly releases. Notably, South Korean services have played around with these models for some time now. Broadly speaking, Netflix has been the biggest champion of the binge model (with good claim to having invented it), though they don’t wade into the debate too often.

Engage.

A recent analysis adds slightly different data to this- from fan communities.

Fandom is the wiki hosting service that features wikis focused on entertainment, helping fans get more out of their entertainment and gaming journeys. Powered by first party data from its 350million global user base, its recent study looks at how various release models might affect fan engagement and retention.

Select takeaways:

• Overall, weekly drops are more effective for both spikes during the release window, and sustaining fan engagement after the finale.

"Weekly drops (+12x vs. average trend) outpaced bingeable releases (9x) in terms of fan engagement".

"Weekly shows sustain fan engagement +50% longer after the credits roll compared to binge drops (16-week window vs. 11 weeks)"

• Newer shows might benefit more from weekly releases- this allows time for fanbase growth through word-of-mouth and earned media.
• For the two-part binge model, there appears to be higher engagement between parts, while at the same time there is concern if it makes it even harder to keep track of releases. “It’s one thing to know that every Wednesday, your show is coming back. It’s another thing to be like, ‘When is this coming back again?”

"Two-part binge releases maintain higher engagement between parts, with mid-season averages 5x above pre-season baselines."

Clearly there is no silver bullet approach, even within a service. Streamers have varying objectives, and we see different models being employed for different shows/IPs on the same platform.

The binge model needs (and feeds off) high volume and high release frequencies, something Netflix of course has mastered and got the run on others. (Though this is costly, and we are not in 2020 anymore when it comes to lavish content spends). But in fact, once in that zone, it is arguably harder to do justice to a show via a weekly release format. These two connected points from an earlier Parrot Analytics report, also leaning toward sustained releases.

• These trends imply more sustained demand and above-average demand for shows released over longer periods of time vs all at once. Sustained demand typically translates to more consistent engagement and lower churn, which means better retention and a lower cost of customer acquisition.?
• To be fair, a platform like Netflix, which releases scores of new titles every month, would not be able to effectively schedule such a volume of TV series weekly without cannibalising viewership.?

In this context, its interesting how Stephanie Fried , Fandom’s CMO, framed it, revealing a wider view that Netlfix has much the less challenges to deal with.

Netflix doesn’t have to do that as much because people are much less likely to cancel anyway. So they’re able to just kind of give people what they want all at once and let them binge.

Not all streamers share that (perceived) clout or track record, of course. A streamer focussing on increasing marketshare/ retention may, choose weeklies to drive new sign-ups and sustain demand; mature streamers may look toward binges to increase short-term usage. "As every streaming service attempts to claw out greater profits, flexible release strategies allows for companies to better address a variety of different goals simultaneously."

For what its worth, the LA times doesn’t consider this a debate any more.

TV viewers have debated the merits of the Netflix-style binge model versus the traditional weekly episode release — along with every kind of hybrid strategy in between. That battle has been won. TV series that dominate the water-cooler conversation arrive the old-fashioned way, week by scintillating week.

** Fandom’s measurements are based on visits to its 50 million pages by 300 million users per month, including data about what pages they visit, how many pages they visit and the depth of their scroll on each page.

Overviews of this data in AdWeek and on Fandom. The LA Times weighs in here.

More in-depth reading from the last 12 months on the topic from Parrot Analytics & the Entertainment Strategy Guy.

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