The fourth season of Stranger Things is on Netflix, it is already one of the most talked about topics on social media and the marathon series will be a very popular program this weekend. However, there is one detail that has caught the attention of many people, namely the size of the Stranger Things 4 episodes.
Season 4 is by far the longest episode of the entire series. To give you an idea, the shortest episode, which is the third, is 1 hour and 3 minutes. In general, on average, the episodes of the television series are the classic 42 minutes. But there is an explanation for this, and it’s not zeal for technical quality.
a different metric
In linear TV, the metric for measuring audience is the number of televisions connected to a given program. In Brazil, this measurement is carried out by the company Kantar Ibope, which has made the company name synonymous with audience measurement. Each point on Ibope corresponds to 74,666 devices in Grande San Paolo, the reference region for the advertising market.
But in streaming services, the measurement happens based on another metric, time on the screen or hours watched. This data is vital to the relationship of companies like Netflix for their relationship with investors and the search for partners in the advertising market. And since Stranger Things is perhaps the most successful series on the platform, making it this long can add a lot to the hours watched for the service as a whole.
Encourage binge watching
One of Netflix’s differentials at the beginning of its original productions, with House of Cards and Orange is The New Black, considered revolutionary, was the release of all the episodes at once. This strategy basically created what is conventionally called binge watching, or series marathons, which consists of watching everything at once, which is impossible in the episodes released weekly on TV.
Marathons are another point that increases the hours watched. However, in some series, Netflix created a gap and published the seasons of the main series in volumes. In the case of Stranger Things 4, Volume 1 has seven episodes and Volume 2 has two more episodes, including a 2.5-hour season finale.
The motivation is simple: hype. By splitting the season, Netflix gets two marathons, plus a week of anticipation of what will happen in the second half. In addition to Stranger Things 4, the same strategy has been used in series such as La Casa de Papel, which ended in 2021, and Ozark, which ended this year.
The post Why are Stranger Things 4 episodes so long? first appeared on Digital Look.
Source: Olhar Digital
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
