What makes it so hard to stop after 1 episode? We are now familiar with binge-watching as a form of entertainment. Instead of waiting a week to find out what happens in the next episode, we get tired waiting for the next seat to load, and get ready to tune into hours of entertainment in the process.
As OTT delivery providers and content owners take greater steps to create direct-to-consumer content streams, it's helpful to understand why part of the OTT content experience is so hard to leave behind. The reason, in a nutshell, is a combination of storytelling, psychology, technology, and emotion.
The Psychology of Binge-Watching
Curiosity is a significant motivator in binge-watching. TV series usually end an episode with at least one question, and often several; an unexpected turn and oftentimes a cliffhanger. A viewer naturally wants to know what will happen next.
Research reveals a positive association between unintentional binge-watching episodes, curiosity, and cliffhangers: a question percolating in the viewer's mind creates an innate incentive to watch the next episode.
Autoplay Solves the Decision
Traditional broadcasting TV channels leave a break between programs, but streaming OTT channels have automated this with autoplay. When one program concludes, a second program will be automatically aired to continue playing and remove the need for the viewer to decide to watch the next program.
A 2020 study on streaming platform interfaces indicates that recommendations, autoplay, and automatic previews promote continued viewing, enabling viewers to continue watching quite happily without having to consciously decide to keep watching. If the content is engaging, scrolling will continue until there are no other options.
It's Emotional
People don't watch shows simply for entertainment; they also watch them to relax after work, to escape boredom, to experience fright, or to empathize. When emotional attachments are made with fictional characters, following the story of these characters is another potential motivator to keep scrolling on to the next thing.
Research identifies a number of motivations for binge-watching, where positive motivations for binge-watching, including entertainment, enrichment, and social connection, associate with non-problematic binge-watching, while other, more problematic motivations for binge-watching, including coping and escapism, associate with problematic binge-watching.
Content Discovery Made Easy via Automated Recommendations
Thanks to automated personalized content recommendations based on a user's previous viewing history, consumers don't even have to make that many conscious decisions to find something to watch. If someone's watching a show, they need not ask 'What Should I Watch?' instead, their platform will offer them options.
With this, entertainment can be a continuous stream, where the user always has a new thing to watch.
Conclusion
Why Is Binge-Watching so Difficult to Stop? For the most part, binge-watching episodes are no more harmful than regular TV channels. streamplay.ai Researchers find positive relationship between intentional binge-watching with mood, entertainment, social connection, and contentment, and a weak positive relationship between unintentional binge-watching with guilt and goal conflict. All that really matters is our ability to control ourselves while watching.
Because binge-watching gives us all the free reign we want to use content for entertainment or relaxation, controlling oneself can be what determines whether binge-watching is problematic or not.
In the end, binge-watching happens because various factors have come together, including cliffhangers, automatic previews, personalized recommendations, autoplay, emotion, and ready access to on-demand content.
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