- Disney + is launched this Tuesday in France.
- Original series like The Mandalorian will be available at the rate of one episode per week.
- This method of dissemination is becoming widespread. It offers advantages for platforms but also for serial consumers. Are we witnessing the end of binge-watching ?
The end of a long wait! After a postponement of its arrival at the request of the government so as not to clog up the networks, Disney + finally lands on our screens this Tuesday with more than 500 films and more than 300 series, including the first 30 seasons of The Simpsons . What binge-watcher until disgust in full containment? Quite paradoxically, no. Like Apple TV +, Disney + bets, for its original series on a broadcast at the rate of one episode per week. This will be the case every Friday at 9 am for The Mandalorian the first live series in the "Star Wars" universe, supervised by Jon Favreau, at the helm of Iron Man and the Lion King . Why slowing down binge-watching is the great idea of the juggernaut, especially during confinement?
Little chronological reminder
With the launch of House of Cards in 2013, Netflix adopts the whole season online model and prevents subscribers from stamping around for a whole week before the next episode of Stranger Things. The Netflix model, conducive to binge-watching , that is to say the bulimic consumption of content, corresponded to a particular moment that of the emergence of the seriesphilie.
At the end of 2013, Amazon Prime Video attempted a more measured approach with series like Alpha House , with three episodes at a time at launch followed by a weekly upload. With the release of Transparent in 2015, Jeff Bezos' platform is opting for the same model as Netflix. Hulu tries a mixed model: if Handmaid's Tale is broadcast at the rate of one episode per week, the 4th season of Veronica Mars is put online all at once.
Even TV channels are then surfing the wave by broadcasting three new episodes of the same fiction in a row during the same evening.
In 2015, FX President John Landgraf launched a shocking sentence, statistically supported: “There is simply too much television! In 2016, American TV broadcast no less than 455 original series, compared to 216 in 2010. Welcome to the era of Peak TV: 487 series were broadcast in the United States in 2017, 495 in 2018, 532 in 2019. A record!
The 2020s or the return of TV channel revenues
With the arrival of new players like Apple TV +, Disney +, HBOMax and Peacok, are we headed for content indigestion in the face of a gargantuan offer? Probably not. These new platforms have decided to partially abandon the model launched by Netflix and return to the recipes of traditional channels.
Launched in the United States in 2014, CBS All Access, which offers The Good Fight, the spin-off of The Good Wife , Star Trek: Discover or Why Women Kill, mainly uses a weekly strategy.
Apple TV +, launched on November 1, 2019, adopts a hybrid approach: three episodes then a weekly broadcast for The Morning Show , See or For All Mankind , while the first season of Dickinson , aimed at young people, 6 out of 10 of whom are fans of Bulimic viewing according to Médiamétrie, is put online at once.
The new Disney + series such as The Mandalorian , broadcast in clear this Tuesday at 8:20 pm on Canal + on the occasion of the launch of the platform, Wanda Vision or The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, will be put online at a rate of one episode per week. “It wasn't really to differentiate us from the competition. We made this decision because we wanted to create meetings and bring families together, ”explains Agnes Chu, general manager of Disney + content, to 20 Minutes .
Each episode thus becomes a cultural "event". “With Disney +, we want to create a space where people can watch programs together. Programs like The Mandalorian encourage people to come every week, enjoy seeing it together, talk about it, and come back week after week, "she said. By broadcasting a series in ten episodes weekly, the platforms make sure to keep their subscribers at least three months.
The success of Game of Thrones , mourned as "the last great success of a" real "chain, which we persist in watching as we go," certainly inspired the Mickey firm. "People want to be part of the cultural zeitgeist , they want to take part in the conversations, a weekly outing makes it possible to do that," confirms Agnes Chu.
Even the alumni - Netflix, Amazon and Hulu - are reviewing their strategies. The 2019 season of The Great British Baking Show was not available all at once on the Reed Hastings platform, as was the reality show Rythm & Flow. The weekly broadcast also offers some advantages to viewers.
The post-containment years towards the rational consumption of content?
The longer the better. At the time of the launch of season 3 of The Leftovers , Damon Lindelof, the creator of Lost and Watchmen , invited series critics not to devour the whole season at once. "I practice binge-watching , I have no lessons to teach!" When you love a series, it's tempting to want to know right away what will happen next! It's like having a big pizza in front of you and eating it until you get sick. You will appreciate it more by tasting it slowly ”, he explained then to 20 Minutes.
And to add: “When you binge-watche, you lose the ability to anticipate, to imagine what will happen. I recommend trying to let a day pass between each episode of The Leftovers , to give yourself time to think about it, to regain this sense of anticipation ”.
Many showrunners have the same inclination for the weekly outing. “ Binge-watcher allows you to stay in history, but watching weekly allows you to talk about it, to anticipate, to speculate. So there is added value, "said Jeff Rake, Manifest showrunner .
In a 2017 study on the effects of binge-watching, researchers from the University of Melbourne showed that people who had swallowed the 6 episodes of the BBC series The Game at once retained less information about the long run as those who enjoyed the show over several days or weeks.
The releases of Stranger Things on Netflix or Fleabag on Prime Video are events that generate conversations. But you have to hurry to watch them to avoid the spoilers. Thus, the third season of Stranger Things generated 8.2 million tweets during its first week of release in July, and 90% less in the fifth week.
Putting an entire season online, harms the sustainability of the series. The animated sitcom for adults Tuca & Bertie was canceled by Netflix in July three months after its launch, when it was one of the highest rated series, with 98% positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. By the time word of mouth did its work, its fate was already sealed. Conversely, series like The Good Place , Succession and Chernobyl have enjoyed progressive success.
To deprive yourself of a weekly broadcast is also to deprive yourself of the famous previously on , these recap sequences. Braindead by Michelle and Robert King, the creators of The Good Wife, would it have the same charm without these famous sung pregeneric sequences?
Are we witnessing the end of binge-watching ? Probably not, but at a slowdown, that's for sure. "The consumer can binge-watcher certain programs, or choose to wait for others," summarizes Agnes Chu.
The confinement has put an end to the frantic race of a good part of the planet and some people are already imagining a world of the future with reasoned consumption patterns. What if the consumption of series followed the same rhythm? Who has never felt overwhelmed by the dizzying number of “late to catch up” series? Why not rediscover the pleasure of savoring a weekly meeting for several around an episode of his favorite series? Take the time to discuss it, build theories rather than isolate yourself from social networks for fear of being spoiled?
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