Binge-watching: The term used to describe the act of watching several episodes of a TV show at once.

The interviews were semi-structured and were conducted using open-ended questions. Before each focus-group interview, the participants were asked to complete a brief questionnaire to collect information on their sociodemographic characteristics and binge-watching frequency. A long, long time ago in the age of cable television we had to wait a week or more for the next episode of whatever series we were watching. Although streaming platforms still keep to the tradition of releasing episodes of a new series weekly, we are seeing more and more series dump an entire season right before our hungry eyes these days. Psychiatrists agree that the release of dopamine when binging can effectively relieve stress and anxiety.

• Other interviewees stated that the reason for sports binge-watching is the desire to share interests and engage with friends in the discussion of the events of the football matches.
• As already mentioned in the introduction, the binge-watching phenomenon dates back to 2013, and it has been growing in popularity ever since, ultimately to become one of the most common ways of free-time spending.
• Binge-watching is a highly entertaining behaviour, while its immersive character may create an opportunity for high cognitive and emotional engagement into the narrative, which could lead to the loss of the control over the time spent on this activity .
• When a new form of entertainment comes along, it is often viewed suspiciously and is first misunderstood—especially if it works with the help of technology.
• Multiple studies show that using binge-watching to obtain instant gratification and to regulate emotions is a maladaptive coping strategy characteristic of behavioural addictions such as problematic internet/computer use, gambling, and social media addiction .
• The content-related factors include shows that end with cliffhangers that make it really hard to not continue on.

More than half (55%) of respondents used it for watching back-to-back TV programs in the same session, followed by the TV set (37.5%), and 7.4% of respondents stated that they were equally likely to use both the TV and Internet. In the same context, Reinecke, Hartmann, and Eden found that those suffering from stressful workdays who used media as a stress-reducer tended to feel guilty for doing so. The authors highlighted that those who used television as a stress-reducer due to their overworked lives paradoxically experienced guilt more frequently, as media usage felt like a form of procrastination rather than attempted relaxation. In this case, busy work schedules caused media relaxation to backfire and guilt to grow. Sandberg and Conner conducted a meta-analysis exploring anticipated regret as an additional predictor in the Theory of Planned Behavior, which demonstrated that anticipated regret significantly adds to the prediction of both intentions and behavior.

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Content is typically viewed without commercial breaks and shows are accessed through subscription-based platforms where advertising is increasingly delivered through in-content product placements. The term continuity also refers to the viewing of episodic or serialized narratives. The term is not simply used to refer to watching any type of programming for an extended period of time (e.g., sports, news). This is significant because episodic narrative content is designed to end with a cliffhanger in the third act of each episode, then resolve that cliffhanger in the first act of the following episode. This narrative structure makes it uniquely difficult to stop watching at the end of a single episode because episodes often do not provide a dénouement or satisfying sense of resolution for viewers.

While the results of a focus group cannot be generalized, qualitative research offers numerous advantages that quantitative surveys do not, particularly for understanding new and emerging behaviors such as binge-watching content online. Focus groups are ideal when the goal of a project is to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of feelings, motivations and consequences of certain behaviors. Communication researchers frequently use qualitative methods as they “give us the chance to listen to consumers express their ideas in their own words and the opportunity to connect with their minds, and hence draw insights and explanations from the participants themselves” . Having defined binge-watching, we will now focus the rest of the literature review on studies that examine the motivations and consequences of binge-watching with the goal of proposing an overall model for the antecedents and consequences of binge-watching.

About This Article

We recruited 25 self-identified binge-watchers in Taiwan and conducted seven focus-group interviews with them in 2019 and 2020. Before their interview, the participants were asked to complete a brief questionnaire to collect information on their sociodemographic characteristics and binge-watching frequency. While binge-watching, the viewer can feel the pleasure of full immersion (aka “the zone”), which is a great feeling similar to staying up all night to finish a book or project. According to psychiatrists, binge-watching releases dopamine in the brain, which creates a feeling of pleasure and can help people to relax and relieve stress. Binge-watching shouldn’t be seen as a chore or something you must do, but something you want to do.

• However, the studies conducted by Merill and Rubenking imply that regret was a negative predictor of binge-watching frequency.
• Contrast this with “marathon viewing,” which connotes accomplishment, and has traditionally been used to describe the experience of consuming multiple installments of film—not TV series—in rapid succession.
• The major risk behind the excessive binge-watching behaviour is the probability of developing symptoms of behavioural addiction.
• The study participants were informed about the research objectives and procedures before enrollment and notified of their interview time.
• The aim of this study is to present the current understanding and psychological conditions of binge-watching, as provided in the research papers published between 2013 and 2020.

Männikkö N., Billieux J., Kääriäinen M. Problematic digital gaming behaviour and its relation to the psychological social and physical health of Finnish adolescents and young adults. Kathait G.S., Singh A.P. The effect of internet addiction on depression, anxiety, social isolation ans sleep pattern among youth. Tefertiller A.L., Maxwell L.C. Depression, emotional states, and the experience of binge-watching narrative television. Shim H., Kim K.J. An exploration of the motivations for binge-watching and the role of individual differences. Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump developed a successful formula of publishing individual manga chapters and then compiling them into separate standalone tankōbon volumes that could be “binged” all at once. This Jump formula produced major Japanese pop culture hits such as Dragon Ball , One Piece and Naruto . According to Matt Alt of The New Yorker, “Jump presaged the way the world consumes streaming entertainment today.”

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Other studies have suggested that binge-watchers might tend to watch more episodes to alleviate loneliness . However, in this study, the participants seldom mentioned negative emotions when discussing their binge-watching experiences and motivations. Despite interesting findings and being a study that proposes a comprehensive model of antecedents and consequences of binge-watching through a mixed method approach, it should be noted that our study has several limitations. First and foremost, it is designed as an exploratory investigation into the antecedents and consequences. While the results of the focus group, although qualitative in nature, provide solid basis for a model, the hypotheses and findings from the second study present some limitations in terms of external validity. Despite the small sample size, our results were statistically significant indicating that a larger sample size will only strengthen them further.

Moreover, Horvath et al. revealed that binge-watchers reported enjoying the viewed program significantly less than people who watched the same show on a daily or weekly schedule. We found that the participants did need to increase their binge-watching intensity or duration over time to find satisfaction. However, the amount of time they spent binge-watching may have depended on whether they were employed.

The current study adopts a mixed method approach to propose a model for antecedents and consequences of binge-watching and test the hypotheses that link the various constructs in the model. The results revealed a positive correlation between self-regulation deficiency and binge-watching. There was an indication that binge-watchers find it difficult to stop watching unless there is a reason driving them to do so.

Their results indicate that viewing leads to more viewing, advertising messages during binge-watching sessions discourage binge-watching behaviors, and users with high proclivities to binge-watching are less responsive to advertising . When scientists refer to binge-watching, they typically consider the number of episodes watched during a session, the frequency of binge-watching sessions, and the content being watched. Most studies define binge-watching as watching multiple episodes of TV series in one sitting, or use the definition created by Netflix, whereby binge-watching is watching between 1 to 6 episodes in one sitting . Moreover, researchers tried to count the number of episodes watched by viewers, i.e., from 1 to 3 , from 1 to 6 , 3-plus episodes , or even more . Another approach was to measure the exact time spent by viewers on binge-watching . Rubenking and Bracken focused on the length of episodes, and defined binge-watching as watching three to four or more thirty-minute-long episodes of TV series or watching three or more one-hour-long episodes. Some studies disregarded the types of binge-watchers with reference to the number of episodes watched .