A new research report from Miner & Co. Studio, a research, marketing and brand consultancy was released that showed 7 of 10 U.S. TV viewers are addicted to binge viewing. This shift from niche activity to the norm that’s been happening over the last few years will continue to have a huge affect on the growth of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other popular OTTs. Here are the details of the study.
How the study was defined:
The study – Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Binge-Viewing Is our New Favorite Addiction* – identifies binge-viewing as watching three or more episodes of one series in a single sitting, with Frequent Binge-Viewers being those who binge a few times per week or more and Infrequent Binge-Viewers those who binge once a month or less.
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Key stats to pay attention to:
It showed that 17 percent of binge-viewers do so on a daily basis, 63 percent weekly and 90 percent on a monthly basis, with Frequent Binge-Viewers skewing younger (61 percent are Millennials) and more ethnically diverse (34 percent being non-white) than Infrequent Binge-Viewers (19 percent).
Binge-viewing side effects:
- Questionable Hygiene – Frequent Binge-Viewers are two-times more likely than Infrequent Binge-Viewers to have skipped showering or bathing because they were binge-viewing;
- Sluggishness – 27% of all viewers said binge-viewing made them feel sluggish or lazy;
- Neglectfulness – Binge-viewing makes them (18 percent of all binge-viewers) “pay less attention to other aspects of their lives,” with Frequent Binge-Viewers nearly three-times more likely to order take-out instead of cooking for their family than Infrequent Binge-Viewers – or to skip a meal entirely – and more than twice as likely to oversleep the next morning;
- Idleness – 30 percent dislike binge-viewing as it makes them less active;
- Insatiable Appetite – 43 percent of Frequent Binge-Viewers watch more TV because of binge-viewing, yet 25 percent of all viewers surveyed said they dislike binge-viewing because they “don’t have anything left to watch once they finish.”
A new nation of TV consumers will no doubt continue to be looked at closely. In the meantime let’s hope that the binge-viewing community becomes less of a mirror to stoners.