On binge-watching: Nine critical propositions

Binge-Watching and Contemporary Television Research

B inge-watching was a relatively obscure phenomenon before 2012. Although practised and discussed in niche circles since before the advent of DVDs, it was not until streaming services and broadband internet became more and more ubiquitous that binge-watching received increased media and academic attention. Between 2015 and 2020, researchers have asked many questions about binge-watchers, including why they watch, what motivates them, how engaged they are (or not), and what outcomes they report after the bingewatching experience. Scholars exploring these questions have found a range of motives, a variety of experiences, a spectrum of engagement, and positively and negatively valenced binge-watching outcomes-some of which are dependent on one another. Why a person binge-watches is strongly tied to what they hope to get out of the experience. What they actually get out of it is tied to what they watch and how they watch it (Castro et al. 2021; Steiner 2017). Our audience part of this book has uncovered additional patterns and structures of binge-watching. To round off the part, we use this chapter to describe audience typologies that shed some light on the why, where, when, with whom, how, and to what end of binge-watching. m o t i v e s Steiner and Xu (2020) found the following binge-watching motives: 'catching up, relaxation, sense of completion, cultural inclusion, and improved viewing experience' (90). These aligned with finding by Perks (2015), Pittman and Sheehan (2015), and later Panda and Pandey (2017). While some motives, such

Communication Research Reports, 2018

Journal of Media Research, 2019

The rise of Video-on-Demand (VoD) services on the media market has produced key mutations in the television series industry at all levels. The dynamics of the tripartite relation between production, distribution and consumption gained new forms when these new services broke the traditional lineage of television and adopted the aesthetics of media catalogs that users can access whenever and wherever they want. VoD portals have triggered a process of usage democratization that has led to the unprecedented popularization of binge-watching as a new norm for the consumption of TV series. The present study explores binge-watching as a way of spending leisure time and the motivations behind the users' decisions to engage in extended viewing sessions. Certain specific behaviors and emotions related to marathon viewing are discussed, as well as the connection between genre and extended watching sessions or users' general attitude towards binge-watching.

Communicator , 2022

The adoption of OTT platforms has engendered the binge-watching phenomenon, this consumption practice contributes to a fundamental shift in the way audience view television. OTT platforms are changing the way television is perceived technologically and culturally. Binge-watching has led to major structural changes in the media landscape that has the potential to change the way content is created, produced and consumed. The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact of OTT platform on television technology, content, distribution, and audience flow. Additionally, the study explores the binge-watching phenomenon by focusing on facets such as—the emergence of binge behaviour, the impact of binging and the polarizing discourse on binge-watching in mainstream media and academic discourse. The research on binge-watching is still in initial stage and this study contributes to the literature by offering a comprehensive analysis on the experience of binge-watching and the expansion of OTT platforms.

International Journal of Digital Television, 2018

The term 'binge watching' is common in popular media and is one of several new ways of TV viewing that capitalizes on the wide availability of digital video and streaming services. However, the term lacks clear conceptualization, and the underlying motivations associated with it remain under-explored. Results from eleven focus groups of university students in the United States suggest binge watching is characterized as viewing suspenseful dramatic, narrative content for a considerable amount of time: often more than three or four hours. Analyses revealed four emergent motivations that contribute to individuals binge watching: (1) anticipation of what was coming next-facilitated by both content and technology features, (2) management of moods and excitement/ arousal, (3) procrastination and escapism, (4) social goals-related to both co-viewing, discussing content with others and identification with characters. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, 2022

Binging-and binge-watching in particular-has been receiving growing interest from communication scientists for a couple of years. Thus, after five decades of watching audiovisual content according to TV schedules, a recipient gained more autonomy regarding the content and ways of watching. The author aims to analyse the factors influencing the potential permanence of this specific way of media consumption, with literature review as the main method. These factors include different definitions of the concept, synonyms, applying the binging term to different media formats (binge-watching-binge-listening-binge-reading-binge-gaming), technological and social circumstances. These factors differ in their quality and scale. Will their convergence and synergy permanently change the practices of media consumption? Referring to previous changes in media differentiation, accessibility, and reception, although binging would probably become rather next, but not the dominating form of media practices of leisure time. The cognitive value of the article is to offer a theoretical basis for further quantitative and qualitative research on the reception of different media formats and genres; binging included.

Computers in Human Behavior

In view of the growing interest regarding binge-watching (i.e., watching multiple episodes of television (TV) series in a single sitting) research, two measures were developed and validated to assess binge-watching involvement ("Binge-Watching Engagement and Symptoms Questionnaire", BWESQ) and related motivations ("Watching TV Series Motives Questionnaire", WTSMQ). To promote international and cross-cultural bingewatching research, the present article reports on the validation of these questionnaires in nine languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Hungarian, Persian, Arabic, Chinese). Both questionnaires were disseminated, together with additional self-report measures of happiness, psychopathological symptoms, impulsivity and problematic internet use among TV series viewers from a college/university student population (N ¼ 12,616) in 17 countries. Confirmatory factor, measurement invariance and correlational analyses were conducted to establish structural and construct validity. The two questionnaires had good psychometric properties and fit in each language. Equivalence across languages and gender was supported, while construct validity was evidenced by similar patterns of associations with complementary measures of happiness, psychopathological symptoms, impulsivity and problematic internet use. The results support the psychometric validity and utility of the BWESQ and WTSMQ for conducting cross-cultural research on binge-watching. Viewers of television (TV) series are currently enjoying unprecedented levels of choice and convenience. No longer dependent on linear TV programming, they can now access as many TV series episodes as they want, regardless of time and place, due to the expansion of ondemand viewing services (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime) widely available on internet-connected devices. In this context, online TV series watching is increasingly becoming a major part of many individuals' daily lives (Deloitte's digital media trends survey, 2018, 2019). However, this major shift in TV series viewing patterns has also led to the emergence of binge-watching which, in the absence of a consensual definition, may be referred to as watching multiple episodes of TV series in a single sitting (Exelmans

The Turkish Online Journal of Design Art and Communication, 2016

Communication has been in existence since the beginning of human history. It is impossible to think of communication without humans, and humans without communication. Throughout time, individuals have developed their communication skills. By obligation to these developments, the environment where the message is tranferred also changes. Media is updated everyday with technical novelties. Bolter's statement " each improvement is a mediation " models the transformation in media and new media. Content, relationships and interaction in new media are mediations, while what concerns systems and technology is considered as remediation. The increase in content and interaction in the media, and the update of relationships creates mediation. The transformation in the technological substructure of the media is expressed as remediation. The most obvious example to give is television. Television has had a linear communication process as a conventional media tool. However, television has undergone the processes of remediation and mediation, where it has now incorporated an interactive structure. With characteristics such as internet, 3 dimensions, digitalization, high resolution, television can now be characterized as 'smart'. Technology, which is defined as socialized information, has turned television into an interactive system. Due to this novelty, television watching habits are changing. In this context, new terminology is also emerging. This study examines binge watching, as a new television watching habit as a result of television's changing characteristics. This study further examines the concept of binge watching according to the uses and gratification theory, where New Media practices have transformed television show watching patterns as a free time activity. In the study, the concept is discussed through a literature review and evaluated through a survey prepared to understand individual television show watching habits.

Binge-Watching and Contemporary Television Research

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2019

The growth of Internet-distributed TV services has transformed video consumption, enhancing the level of control that viewers have over what they watch. Along with the release of entire seasons of programming at once, this has led to the phenomenon of ‘binge-watching’, in which several episodes of a program are viewed in one sitting. This article presents the results of a novel exploratory study focused on 40 Netflix viewing sessions from 11 millennials in their homes. Methodologically, we employed a novel mixed-methods approach that combines objective data (collected through a browser extension) and subjective data (collected via questionnaires completed before and after viewing). This novel approach allowed us to describe the binge-watcher’s experience in a holistic fashion. Results suggest that binge-watching is an individual activity mainly performed at the end of the day to relax, for boredom relief purposes, or for escapism. Furthermore, a binge-watching session lasts for an a...