Bingeing new TV shows won't last long

Nine years ago this month Netflix changed how we watch television. The streaming service released an entire season of its political drama "House of Cards" at once, enabling viewers to binge on 13 episodes.

Consumers were torn over whether bingeing was a luxury or, as with a gallon of ice cream or a fifth of vodka, too much of a good thing. Regardless, the scheduling tactic helped Netflix's profits soar. Now, with a raft of new streaming services competing for subscriber dollars, binge scheduling might soon face cancellation.

A new report from the research firm Antenna showed that many customers sign up when a major movie or series comes along, then unsubscribe a short while later. This customer turnover, or "churn," is beginning to worry streaming services, just as it has plagued premium cable-TV outlets such as HBO and Showtime over the last five decades. Deloitte Global predicts that at least 150 million streaming subscriptions will be canceled worldwide in 2022.

TV programmers learned long ago that nothing keeps viewers engaged over time like a hit weekly series. Unfortunately, binge scheduling defeats that, allowing viewers to watch and run, just as they might with a major movie.

Here's what a recent consumer column in the New York Times suggested: "When an entire season of a show that you want to watch becomes available, you can join the appropriate streaming service, watch it for a month, then cancel - and sign up again later if something else catches your fancy." That's the very thing that has streaming services rethinking the binge strategy.

Apple TV+, for example, had great success with the quirky comedy "Ted Lasso" by releasing it in traditional weekly episodic style, with an audience building through word of mouth. Thanks to streaming's technological advantage for on-demand library viewing, "Ted Lasso" latecomers could easily catch up.

Even Netflix is modifying its binge-style scheduling. When the hit crime thriller "Ozark" began its fourth and final season last month, many viewers were surprised that only half of the 14 episodes produced were made available. Netflix customers will have to wait - and presumably maintain their subscriptions - until the remaining seven shows are offered.

The scheduling challenge comes at a time when programming is growing at a remarkable pace. In 2021, streamers and cable services combined to release 1,923 original series episodes, according to analysis by Variety, an increase of 22 percent in just one year. This is in addition to movies, many of which have gone straight to streaming during the pandemic, and off-network reruns, such as "Seinfeld" and "Friends," that have found new popularity in streaming without commercials.

Bingeing a large library of reruns is a great benefit of streaming. However, as streaming services assess marketing needs, it's likely that the opportunity to watch entire seasons of new series marathon style won't last much longer. The strategy that helped Netflix build a streaming empire is falling apart, like a house of cards.

Copyright 2022 Peter Funt distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Peter Funt's new memoir, "Self-Amused," is now available at CandidCamera.com.