# Will the binge-lover's style be cramped?



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

_The LA Times_ headline is Are these end times for binge culture? What it tells us is:

Disney +, launching Nov. 12, will release episodes weekly. Apple TV + will take the same hybrid approach with "See" and "For All Mankind" as it will with "The Morning Show," while "Dickinson" - with half-hour episodes and a distinctly youthful air - will be dropped en masse. HBO Max, expected in spring 2020, is also unlikely to adopt the "binge and burn" approach, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Even Netflix is experimenting with releasing select reality titles and talk shows on a different schedule.

Appointment viewing might seem old-fashioned, a vestige of the dark days before DVRs and video on demand, but week-to-week anticipation and strong word of mouth helped propel the growth of recent shows like HBO's "Succession" and "Chernobyl." It turns out if you want a "watercooler" show, it helps to be in the room at the same time.​
The article explains many more details and discusses the various implications. I'm not a binge-watcher. But if a show's season is "dropped" on day one, all I have to do is watch it over a number of weeks rather than all at once. Binge-watchers could just wait until all episodes have been "dropped" then watch the whole season.

It's all very curious.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

_Appointment viewing might seem old-fashioned, a vestige of the dark days before DVRs and video on demand, but week-to-week anticipation and strong word of mouth helped propel the growth of recent shows like HBO's "Succession" and "Chernobyl." It turns out if you want a "watercooler" show, it helps to be in the room at the same time._​
Some people forget about the importance of appointment viewing. While DVR use has cut in to the need to watch content live, a lot of popular programming continues to be appointment viewing. Contest and reality shows with voting don't really work as binge shows. Live sports are better watched live - or at least before one gets to the water cooler the next day. Imaging if a full season of Game of Thrones was released on one day ... it would be overwhelming to watch and the buzz about the show would last a week instead of stretching out the discussion (and subscriptions) over the length of a season. It is better marketing to release content in serial form. Keep the buzz and the subscriptions going for months and make people feel like they are missing out if they missed this week's episode.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

phrelin said:


> _The LA Times_ headline is Are these end times for binge culture? What it tells us is:
> 
> Disney +, launching Nov. 12, will release episodes weekly. Apple TV + will take the same hybrid approach with "See" and "For All Mankind" as it will with "The Morning Show," while "Dickinson" - with half-hour episodes and a distinctly youthful air - will be dropped en masse. HBO Max, expected in spring 2020, is also unlikely to adopt the "binge and burn" approach, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Even Netflix is experimenting with releasing select reality titles and talk shows on a different schedule.
> 
> ...


This is nothing new, some sites have always done this. HBO does it regularly. We just wait till all the episodes are available and then we watch the whole thing. Not a problem here. Again, YMMV, people do things differently.

Rich


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Appointment viewing is the traditional American broadcast model we old folks grew up with. I say "American" because what distinguishes it from the British model is we had, and continue to have, 23± episodes released over the period from about October through May. The British model is 6± episodes released over 6± weeks. 

IMHO it is the British model that has evolved into the Netflix style of dropping a season to be binge watched.

To me there is a significant "relationship" difference between the viewer tand the show because of the style of the model.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

The only binge watching I have done is "Nurse Jackie" when Showtime had a free preview weekend. I watched about eight episodes over the weekend, no more than three at a time, though. I'm retired, but the TV is off after 30 minutes of the morning news until the local news comes on at 5:30 pm. We seldom watch more than an hour of TV at night, either DVR'd or streamed. Saturdays, though, the college football games are on most of the day and early evening.

Acorn TV offers the ninth season of Doc Martin provides a new show every Thursday, one day after the British broadcast.


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## mjwagner (Oct 8, 2005)

The last time we “appointment watched” anything was back when Seinfeld first aired. I can’t see us ever going back to that model. Even if they started releasing shows that way we wouldn’t watch them that way. Of the shows we watch now I honestly can’t tell you when they are actually on or even what channel they are on...LOL.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

mjwagner said:


> The last time we "appointment watched" anything was back when Seinfeld first aired. I can't see us ever going back to that model. Even if they started releasing shows that way we wouldn't watch them that way. Of the shows we watch now I honestly can't tell you when they are actually on or even what channel they are on...LOL.


Truthfully we don't do appointment viewing in the sense that we watch on the night it aired. Everything is streamed. I literally create my own TV schedule which we more or less follow:








Maintaining it has become a chore, what with the show-filled what I consider as channels...

Acorn TV
Amazon Prime (through which at the moment we subscribe to HBO and Britbox)

CBS All Access (which includes CBS broadcast shows streaming the day after shows air plus the local CBS station live feed and a whole lot more)

Hulu (which includes ABC, Fox, and NBC streaming the day after shows air plus much, much more and through which we at the moment subscribe to Showtime)
PBS
Philo (58 cable channels with show episode "saving" rather than recording)
...giving me way, way too much programming to choose from and even what I'd like to see is far too much.

I know it's a weird way to think, but when I talk about a "relationship" with a show, it's like I can't quit my "friendship" with Gibbs on _NCIS_ although I gave up the other two _NCIS: LA_ and _NCIS: New Orleans_ because I wanted to be sure to spend time with _Doc Martin_ when he's around on Acorn TV.

Yeah, dementia is setting in....


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

mjwagner said:


> The last time we "appointment watched" anything was back when Seinfeld first aired. I can't see us ever going back to that model. Even if they started releasing shows that way we wouldn't watch them that way. Of the shows we watch now I honestly can't tell you when they are actually on or even what channel they are on...LOL.


Yup, me too. I think the last time I used an HR to watch a series was at least 3 years ago. I haven't done the "appointment watched" thing...must have been back in the late 90s. I simply don't do that anymore. Seems like an anachronism to me, to be honest. VCRs freed me from the Guide, DVRs enhanced that freedom, streaming supercharged it. What we do isn't for everybody, I get that.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

phrelin said:


> Truthfully we don't do appointment viewing in the sense that we watch on the night it aired. Everything is streamed. I literally create my own TV schedule which we more or less follow:
> Maintaining it has become a chore, what with the show-filled what I consider as channels...
> 
> Acorn TV
> ...


Doubt that, seems like you've found a better way.

Rich


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Rich said:


> Doubt that, seems like you've found a better way.
> 
> Rich


Well, it does sure leave me feeling like this from this morning's newspaper...










Of course a newspaper is also an anachronism...


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

phrelin said:


> Well, it does sure leave me feeling like this from this morning's newspaper...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I read that comic the other day and meant to use it and promptly forgot about it. Glad to see it. And it's accurate. I recently tried to give my 11 year old granddaughter a 65" 4K set and she told me she didn't have any use for it. For the same reasons given in the comic above. Everything is right there whenever they want it and they know where to look and how to navigate the various sites.

Yeah, the newspapers seem to be on the verge of disappearing. I'm paying a buck fifty for the NY Daily News each day and I can't seem to cut that cord either. Gonna go up to $2 soon and I'm gonna keep buying it. Hurts a bit each day but I do enjoy the paper with breakfast.

Rich


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## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

phrelin said:


> Well, it does sure leave me feeling like this from this morning's newspaper...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It's ironic that cartoon was in a newspaper.

"What are you reading?"

"Everything ever written - its all on my phone."

"I miss newspapers, books and magazines."


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Athlon646464 said:


> It's ironic that cartoon was in a newspaper.
> 
> "What are you reading?"
> 
> ...


I can't give up the morning paper but I haven't picked up a book or magazine in quite some time. Once I got a Kindle that was it for physical books. Never had much interest in magazines. But that comic certainly nailed the way kids feel today. That could have been Sadie in that comic strip. Or any of her friends.

Rich


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## SamC (Jan 20, 2003)

IMHO,

- As to “binge watching” understand where non-linear TV is going. “Everything” is not going to be on a couple of service. No. Every content producer will have its own service, and its own bill. Allowing bingeing allows people to move from service to service, watching everything of interest on a particular one for a month or so, and moving to the next one. They want “cord cutters” (actually cord switchers, of course) to stay with their service all the time. The best way to do that is to have programs for a limited time.

- Newspapers. Your local newspaper was like your crazy ole uncle. He knew who won the ball game in more detail than you could want, who died and when was the funeral, what was on at the movies, what the city counsel was up to, what was being built on that lot on Pine Street, and lots else. But to find it out, you had to listen to his crazed extremist political rants. He thought you talked to him for his politics, but in fact you talked to him despite them.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

All I read of the newspaper was the front page (if interesting) and the comics. A few years ago my wife decided she wasn't getting enough value out of the paper and now we are "Sunday only" subscribers. Subscriptions have fallen enough that the local paper no longer delivers (not enough home delivery customers to make a reasonable profit). They have gone to post office delivery ... which means if the paper doesn't get to the post office by their cutoff it is delivered the next day. Sunday became a weekend paper ... 50% of the time it comes on Saturday - 48% of the time it comes on Monday - 2% of the time it simply does not come. No paper is published on Sundays or postal holidays. On a positive note, they publish on the website seven days per week as news breaks. The bad news that it is paywalled and one has to have either a full week print subscription or pay the same rate as print to get online only access. "Sunday only" subscribers get nothing more than non-subscribers online.

Local cities and the county have websites ... that is where I go for zoning news. I read the city counsel agendas. And I watch local TV news ... two network stations have 4pm-6:30pm local news, the third has 5pm-6:30pm local news. The Fox station is owned by the CBS station in my market so they don't have early evening news - but they do have a 10pm hour before the 11pm news on the other three network stations. Plenty of opportunity to catch a newscast with local news. And (so far) no paywall on the TV news sites.


To succeed streamers need to find ways of keeping people as subscribers. Rotating binge watchers won't keep the lights on forever ... the streaming companies need to either NOT feed bingers (have only the current and the past couple of episodes available of a current season instead of allowing people to binge new seasons immediately) or have enough new content every month that people won't take a break. Or they will need to have enough content that no one can watch all of it that interests them in a viewing month. Small libraries and months without new compelling content is not going to keep a streamer allve.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

I daily download two newspapers in PDF format - the _Los Angeles Times_ and the _Santa Rosa Press Democrat_. Of course, I check out the comic strips on the _Press Democrat_. And I read articles in both though not always both daily - depends on how busy I am. For some reason I'm busy some days.

Lately I have been perusing in both papers the weekend real estate ad sections gasping at what is for sale for over a million bucks in what used to be, and apparently still are, middle-class (?) suburbs.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

phrelin said:


> I daily download two newspapers in PDF format - the _Los Angeles Times_ and the _Santa Rosa Press Democrat_. Of course, I check out the comic strips on the _Press Democrat_. And I read articles in both though not always both daily - depends on how busy I am. For some reason I'm busy some days.
> 
> Lately I have been perusing in both papers the weekend real estate ad sections gasping at what is for sale for over a million bucks in what used to be, and apparently still are, middle-class (?) suburbs.


Looking at real estate in CA is a trip! Million bucks and not even in an upscale area in some cases.

Rich


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Our house eight blocks from the Pacific Ocean has been our best investment. It's 95 years old, remodeled in 1980, and has grown at a compound yearly interest rate of 8.8% in value over 48 years since we bought it.


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