As viewers, we got used to binge watching our series for the last years. Netflix led the way by publishing all episodes and the rest of the platforms followed suit. However, we saw how this releasing trend is becoming less popular.
HBO Max, Disney + and other streaming services returned to the one episode per week classic model. In other words, they are coming back to linear TV times, in which viewers had a weekly appointment with their favorite show. Waiting and craving for more content during seven days might be a familiar feeling for our older readers.
The advantages of Netflix’s model
Before focusing on the causes pushing the streaming platforms to travel back in time, it’s essential to understand why they started to publish all the content simultaneously. Better yet, how Netflix dragged the entire industry into following its lead.
We must travel to 2013 to discover it, to the beginning of the streaming platforms era. Netflix was building its enormous content catalog and published its first significant production in that year: House of Cards. This adaptation of the British classic TV Series was the first success for an original show of the platform in terms of audience, media repercussion and awards. The production was fully released on February 1st in an unprecedented move in the industry.
After House of Cards, other shows like Stranger Things or The Crown came to our screens. All the episodes of each season of these series were released on the same day. Barry Enderwick, former Netflix’s Marketing Director, explained the strategy: “The customer could decide how much to watch was the right choice.” This way, the customer decides, the customer is happy and the customer engages with the platform. Obviously, the results were positive. The former executive stated that “if the data showed this to be detrimental to any metric including retention, we would have stopped doing it immediately.”
But there is more beyond the “power to the people” explanation. Some other theories explain a model that was never described officially by Netflix. One of them stated that the company wanted to establish a new consumption culture. If the people binge-watch classics from the catalog like Seinfeld or 24, why wouldn’t they do it with long-awaited contents? Today, this strategy has proved its efficacy, since we’re used to that model, and Netflix dominates the VoD market with 213 million subscribers.
So… What’s the catch?
This is not a perfect model and it has its shortcomings. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t make sense for other platforms to return to weekly releases. Among them, the most obvious is the subscribers’ lack of engagement that this model implies. It’s not easy to build loyalty if our users can watch all their favorite content in one or two days.
Brief subscriptions are usual in a market without permanency terms (which would be suicide for any platform). Let’s illustrate it with an example. Netflix released a new season of The Witcher this past December. As a user, nothing can stop us from subscribing, paying for a month, watching the series, and canceling our subscription. The platform gets a new member fee, but only for a few days…
With the weekly model, this is more complicated and less usual. For example, if we like the show Succession, we would have been forced to pay three months of HBO Max to enjoy a weekly episode of the Roy family treasons. Furthermore, the platform is buying time to prepare a new release. Once the season is over, the company engages the user with a new show for another few weeks. At the same time, classic shows are available in the catalog if the viewer wants to invest heavily in a couch potato weekend.
Besides this advantage, the company can also create a social media conversation around the show. With the release of a new chapter each week, the platform can publish promotion posts, clips with the best moments, surveys about what the people believe will happen the next week and a long etcetera. This strategy is supported by the casting stars of the shows, with thousands of social media followers. For example, Zendaya shares insights of “Euphoria” Season 2 each with every new episode with her 124 million followers on Instagram. A perfect, comprehensive promotion campaign.
In addition, linear TV is still there and, on some occasions, platforms must adapt to current times to avoid content-ruining spoilers. No one would watch a TV show if it’s available on a platform. That’s why Netflix is forced to release the episodes of “The Great British Baking Show” weekly in order to match the publication with the original broadcast on Channel 4. Also, HBO still premieres its shows on its cable channel in the US.
The flexibility of both options
As always, virtue lies in the middle term and the best option is to combine both models. Meredith Gertler, Executive VP of Content Strategy and Planning at HBO Max admits that its company uses this hybrid approach: “We have the flexibility to develop a unique strategy per series to best meet the customers where they are. Some of our series lend themselves to bingeing, while others are better suited to consume over time.” An ideal traffic management system must adapt to both models to have that flexibility with media planning and publication. This is not a problem for VSNCrea.
With VSN’s BMS (Broadcast Management System), we can schedule the publication of all content on a given date and plan serial publications week by week on a given day. This way, we can establish the content strategy according to each series and apply a mode of publication to each content.
In addition to that flexibility, VSNCrea is a traffic management ally. This system allows you to manage your content catalog and schedule its traditional broadcasting on linear TV or release on VoD or OTT channels. If you want to watch VSNCrea in action, book a demo with us and we will show you how much we love binge watching at VSN, but how we also love to discuss the latest episode of our favorite show on Monday mornings.
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