With streamers returning to weekly episodes, is binge-watching about to peak?

It’s not all ancient history either. As recently as 2014, only about 40 percent of Hollywood films were released simultaneously in the US and Europe.

The story was largely the same on TV. In the fall of 1994, the entertainment pages of the newspapers were full of stories about an amazing new medical drama entitled HE, who had taken US television by storm and made an actor named George Clooney an overnight star (despite struggling on television for a decade). Here we had to wait until February of the following year to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.

Nowadays, the biggest films are usually released worldwide on the same day. The staggered release is reserved for medium to small budget films.

On television, the simulcast — something formerly limited to World Cups, the Olympics, and one-off events like Live Aid in 1985 — has now become more common.

If you didn’t mind losing most of your night’s sleep, you could have watched game of Thrones on Sky Atlantic at 2am Monday, while US viewers watched it on HBO. Sky Atlantic also broadcasts his other HBO series, Westworld, House of the Dragon and The White Lotus.

It’s highly unlikely that this would happen without the rise of Netflix. When the streaming service made up the entire first season house of cards Available worldwide on the same day, February 1, 2013, it was hailed as a turning point for broadcasting.

Some of the more somber commentators also predicted that this would be the beginning of the end of traditional television. Why, they asked, would anyone want to wait a full week between episodes of a series when they could watch them all in a single weekend or even a single day?

But here we are a decade later and traditional television is still around. Binge-watching didn’t kill it like the doom-mongers predicted. Nor has it turned out to be the future of television.

There’s still a healthy appetite for weekly dramas — particularly ones with plenty of twists and cliffhangers — and the buzz of the collaborative viewing experience. People still love to discuss and analyze the latest episode and share their speculations and theories. The difference is that we now do this on social media or online discussion groups instead of around the water dispensers.

Personally, I’ve never been an avid binge watcher. I only do it when absolutely necessary. Moving on through the ridiculously bloated fourth season of stranger things in two sittings to finish writing a review was a grueling experience.

Watching TV should be a leisure activity. It’s meant to be fun, not a competition, to see who gets to the end first and then brag on Twitter. But there are clear signs that the binge-watching craze may be peaking if it hasn’t already.

The big streamers that have emerged after Netflix are starting to move away from the binge model. Disney+ distributes its Marvel and war of stars Series two episodes first, with one a week after. Apple TV+ does the same with its series.

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The biggest streaming series of 2022, at least in terms of effort and expectations, has been The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which Amazon Prime Video distributed in weekly installments.

Aside from the fact that taking your time with a series lets you soak up the details and nuances, the creators can also soak up viewers’ criticisms, meaning they can correct course for future seasons. TV did this long before streaming, and for one reason: it works.