Recently with world events, Binge-watching Streaming series on various devices has been on top of many peoples agenda and is often discussed on social media and other media platforms. However in reality over the last few years, this has been growing into a bigger thing, with more and more people changing their viewing habits.
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The Culture
The culture with people and their viewing habits is so different from 30, 20,10 and even 5 years ago with a generation now being raised on over the top instant video, including Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, among others, even Sports and events like ESPN, UFC, WWE, etc have streaming service to allow us to access whatever we want, even the likes of Disney have recently entered the market, the most unlikely of sources BBC/ITV have combined to try to combat the viewing habits of people with there Britbox Service.
The Past
In days gone by people would be sat watching TV live, on just 4 channels, we all know that but shockingly when we use that as an example it feels so long ago because nowadays we look back and think about when we had channels live and recorded across hundreds of channels like on Sky/BT/Virgin, this feels the past of watching TV for much newer and the younger generation ( i feel very old).
I look at my kid’s habits and they watch practically nothing live, the only thing is the kid’s programs in the morning while we are still waking up and getting into the day, but other than that, I cannot think what they just watch live or at a set time. The TV can be on in the main room but it’s either white noise in the background or they have chosen something from on-demand like Sky, Netflix, Disney+, Prime etc.
Companies that broadcast the traditional way look like they have realised the change in the new ways of viewing, there are of course still millions of people who sit and watch TV and programs at specific times, and these for the time being mostly include the older generation, all the way down to the 20’s but each of that generation is losing viewers and that increases as you head to each younger generation, even some of the very older TV watching generation are learning to use Netflix etc.
So the likes of Sky have invested heavily into there On-demand service to combine the normal TV and the ability to access anything at any point, even in the last couple of years Sky, ITV and BBC iplayer have had all of the specific Series available while on demand while still showing it weekly on the normal channels, to cater for both type of viewers.
Looking Forward
What does the future hold? well this lockdown exposed even more people to the world of over the top on-demand services and allowed to binge-watch many of there series, so now potentially people will be craving even more for the latest series to binge if you look on social media and the Internet there thousands of people sharing what they are watching, reviews, how-to, what to watch next etc… its becoming one of the things to do in 2020 and it will continue, so expect even more ways to watch, more services, more TV and films going straight to streaming services, as the generation continues to slowly move over to it.
I’m one of them, I hate waiting weekly for stuff, I prefer to blast a series in days as opposed to waiting weeks and weeks for every single episode, I even wait now for it to be nearly complete on the TV and then watch is in a blast! and i know people younger than me will be more on the ball with their binge-watching habits than I will be, there are some positives like older Series given a new lease of life, or even emotionally for you as you rewatch a Series that has memories flooding back to you.
I would dare say most of us has binge-watched a series in the last year, probably the last 6 months, likely the last 3 months! some even the last week, and theres plenty to choose from out there right now.
Streaming has been a godsend over the past few weeks, it has to be said. We have pretty much spent our evenings watching some amazing telly. I think it has really helped me through this whole thing.