Can Disney+ change the streaming game with its anti-binging strategy?

The Verge

Netflix helped change television culture with its binge-release model. "It conditioned viewers to believe that streaming must be equivalent to immediacy," says Julie Alexander. "Those bingeing habits have created a cultural disturbance, with new etiquette rules forming online in an effort to respect other people’s viewing schedules. People argue endlessly about the spoiler etiquette on popular shows like Stranger Things, where many viewers will have watched the entire season within the first day of release, while others only have the time to experience it gradually." But Disney along with Apple and the Disney-owned Hulu are "looking to change the game again by taking the opposite strategy with their streaming services," says Alexander. "If Netflix turned patience into a forgotten virtue, its competitors are trying to bring it back." As she points out, the weekly release model is a smart move for Disney. Star Wars fans won't be able to binge through every episode of The Mandalorian in one night. They'll have to keep subscribing to Disney+ for months. "Bringing the water cooler effect back to streaming television helps companies get more impact and attention," says Alexander. "While viewers talked about each new episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones for a week or more while it was on the air, the new season of Netflix’s hit Stranger Things seems to have come and gone in a flash. Researchers have long suggested that people who binge-watch a show are also more likely to forget what happens than those who space out their viewing time. Bingers are more likely to experience the euphoric highs, as psychologists have discovered, but they also move past a show more quickly once they’re done watching it. The most ironic thing coming out of the streaming wars is a throwback to what made TV feel like a shared pastime between the 1950s and the pre-Netflix days: waiting, celebrating, and commiserating together."