Study Finds That Netflix, Hulu Users Prefer to Watch Way Too Many Episodes Of Their Favorite Shows At Once. You Don’t Saaaay?
Today In Obvious
Not that I speak from experience. I absolutely did not stay up until the wee hours last night watching an entire season of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Nope. Why would you say that?
Nielsen Media conducted a study to analyze the behavior of those who use streaming services Netflix, Hulu (Plus and Basic), and Amazon Prime. The results? Most of us like to binge watch, to tune tune of 88 percent among Netflix users and 70 percent among Hulu Plus users. What’s more, 58 percent of those surveyed said they like to hold off on watching their favorite shows so they can marathon several episodes back-to-back(-to-back-to-back-to-back…).
It’s worth noting, though, that Nielsen kind of lowballs what constitutes a binge, at least in my view. For them, a binge is three or more episodes per day. Three episodes. Nielsen, that is not a binge. That is a snack.
Binge-happy Hulu Plus subscribers will be happy to know that, in the coming year, they’ll have many more shows to stay up until unreasonable hours watching: BBC Worldwide North America has partnered with Hulu to air 144 titles on the streaming service. Doctor Who (only New Who, no Classic) arrived today, and Sherlock, Luther, Blackadder, and Torchwood will show up in the fall; other titles should be available within the year.
For now we’re only looking at older episodes, so you won’t be able to go on Hulu and see the first episode of season three of Sherlock the day after it airs on the BBC, whenever that ends up being. You’ll still have to wait for PBS or torrent. And most of the content (including all of Doctor Who) will be locked behind the Hulu Plus paywall. But hey, that’s what two-week free trials are for. You are binging, after all.
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