Netflix Will Keep Binge Model for New TV Series

When it comes to the “streaming wars,” there are more and more platforms where you can watch movies and shows. Of course, Netflix changed the game when it made the switch from only mailing DVDs to having an online platform, but with popular new sites like Disney+ and HBO Max, Netflix is starting to suffer. In fact, it was revealed this week that the platform lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year, the first time it lost subscribers since 2011. Hours after revealing the loss, stocks of the streaming platform started to decline in a big way. Netflix ended up losing over $54 billion in market capitalization overnight, which marks one of the biggest single-day plummets in the history of the market. The stock ($NFLX) sank throughout the day on Wednesday, losing some 35 points to close at $226.19 per share. Now, there’s a lot of talk about big changes for Netflix, including an ad-supported tier. However, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the platform intends to keep its current binge model. 

“Netflix doesn’t plan on making any dramatic changes to its custom of releasing a season’s worth of episodes at once,” the article reads. “Other streamers have opted for a more traditional approach of spreading out the release of episodes so they can build buzz, a strategy some producers wish Netflix would embrace.”

“There are so few Netflix shows that get what [producer] David Kelley used to call ‘water cooler treatment,’ you know, where he’d have an episode of Ally McBeal and people would talk about it the next day,” Marty Adelstein, chief executive of Tomorrow Studios, explained. Adelstein went on to predict that Netflix will eventually shift to releasing three episodes at a time instead of full seasons.

“I still think that our members, by and large, want to watch what they want, as many as they want, when they want,” Bela Bajaria, the head of global TV for Netflix, said in a recent interview.

While Netflix is currently keeping its binge model, the platform has moved to splitting seasons in half for many of its popular shows. For example, the long-awaited fourth season of Stranger Things is finally coming next month. It’s been three years since the show’s third season was released and now Season 4 will be split into two parts and followed by a fifth and final season, ending the journey that made so many young actors famous back in 2016. 

Do you think Netflix should keep the binge model? Tell us in the comments!