Binge-watching has helped solidify Netflix as the biggest streaming name in the world, but it has also created a number of problems.
Piracy has completely changed the way we consume series. With the ability to download entire seasons, the need to watch one episode a week has disappeared. A series that just ended outdoors could be consumed in one breath in a single weekend. The era of the marathon had begun.
Netflix managed to solve this problem. Not in the marathon, in the piracy: now, at a very reasonable price, and without having to worry about searching for torrents and subtitles, the user could marathons whatever he wanted. The balcony has reoriented a market that was previously linked to the logic of weekly programming. See what you want, when you want. everything is available nowfor your convenience.
In general, other streaming services have followed suit. New series arrived in the catalog with their complete seasons. And the same was true of the original series. These two features – the appeal to convenience and access to closed seasons – have become the main strengths of streaming. It seemed that the perfect model had been found.
… but it seemed
sand man arrived on Netflix on August 5, 2022 after a lot of expectations. There have been years and years of waiting for a worthy adaptation of the work of the English Neil Gaiman, author of the cult comics released by DC Comics. This same Gaiman was also directly involved in the creation of the series. or sand man from Netflix, therefore, came with its blessing.
And the adaptation went well with critics and audiences, as the series page on Rotten Tomatoes indicates. It was also the most watched series on the platform for three weeks. It currently ranks third, with approximately 361 million viewing hours. Not bad for a time when so many series are vying for public attention, right?
However, as this text is written, Netflix has not yet formalized the second year of sand man. Which obviously begs the question: How does the company decide what to renew and what to cancel?
Neil Gaiman himself shed some light on this issue by responding to fans on Twitter. The author drew attention to one of Netflix’s main criteria for determining whether a series deserves a new season: the completion rate.
The completion rate is determined by how many people have started and finished the season of a series. Once the season comes out all at once, it’s not enough for a large number of people to start watching to indicate that the production is a success; Netflix examines the progress of the season as a whole. Series with a high completion rate are more likely to renew.
That is: if you are watching sand man without rushing, perhaps even going slow to enjoy the series for longer, know that Netflix prefers you to run a little longer. The second season could depend on this.
Twenty-eight decisive days
OK, we already understand that finishing watching the season is an important criterion for Netflix. But how long? Well, according to what the same company has already transmitted to journalists, the time metric used is the twenty-eight first days after launch. In these four weeks, the company analyzes whether there is, in fact, a demand for new seasons.
It may sound like a lot, but think about a series released weekly. Let’s say it has eight episodes. So it will be eight weeks. Two months. The spectator will have double the time to complete the season. Netflix’s standard model requires shows to deliver results much faster.
And the problems are obvious. There are series that were not made for such fast consumption. Which require attention, world building and characters, which ask the viewer to accept a slower pace. On Netflix, content with this profile could be threatened, as audiences must embrace the series in twenty-eight days.
Note that this is a direct consequence of the release of full seasons. When episodes are released weekly – the “outdated” TV model – a series can run for a longer period of time. Perhaps more than one season will be released until it finds its audience. Netflix, on the other hand, operates on a logic of urgency.
In his tweets, Neil Gaiman seemed confident in this sand man it is on the right track for renewal. However, the indefinite state of the show sends a message to other producers. If your show isn’t meant to be a marathon runner, it may have problems.
Lost series in the midst of noise
In addition to being debatable whether four weeks is enough to define the future of a series, it’s worth thinking about the amount of content available. Every day new series and movies appear on different streams, which have become a real FOMO factory. In the midst of so much noise, grabbing the audience’s attention is no easy task.
In this context, making an entire season available can doom that content to irrelevance. The productions become more and more fleeting, without appeal in the face of many other options. Plus, if the season comes full, conversation about the series is limited. No room to create expectations. Those eight or ten episodes generate a buzz that comes and goes in a few weeks.
Therefore, the idea of ​​publishing the episodes weekly gains strength. HBO Max, Apple TV + and Disney Plus follow this model with their original series. Prime Video has also launched some of its most successful productions.
Think of all the speeches, memes and theories around the boys And Breakand, more recently, of The rings of power And House of the Dragon. The advantage of the weekly release is very evident: a good series takes a longer breath and its cultural relevance tends to extend.
Netflix itself has already released seasons in parts, as is the case with Stranger things And Ozark. And, among the series acquired for international distribution, several are already broadcast with one episode per week. The company already has experience with this more traditional model, then.
The question is whether the once omnipotent streaming is willing to take that “backward” step and experiment with the TV model. On the one hand, this movement would be at odds with its entire history. On the other hand, your original series can greatly benefit from taking longer to find a welcoming audience.
Don’t you even want to know about the marathon?
On Tecnocast 258 we talked about Netflix’s insistence on binge-watching and how it has been increasingly questioned when it comes to streaming.
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We’re tired of the marathon, Netflix
Source: Terra
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.
