7 - Binge Watching (Old, New, Domestic, or Global)

Binge watching is something that I am sure most people have been a part of at least once in their life. Binge watching is the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television program in rapid succession, typically by means of digital streaming. I recently binge-watched SVT.play's TV Show "Bror" (Brother) and it was very hard to avoid binge-watching it. 

Binge-watching has become a popular pastime for many people around the world. From streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu to prerecorded or downloaded content, there are plenty of ways to enjoy your favorite shows.

Sweden, the US, and the UK are in the top three when it comes to volume of TV shows binged each month, with Spain being the least among the seven countries involved in the report. Forty-six percent of all respondents said they binged more content during pandemic lockdowns compared to pre-pandemic. The report made by Whip Media Group takes a global look at binge-watching, finding 50 percent of the more than 32,000 who responded across seven countries - US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Sweden - like to binge most or all of their shows. 

Eight out of 10 said they prefer all episodes of a new or returning show to be made available for binge-watching, instead of weekly episodes availability, and just over 80 percent said availability of bingeable content was an important factor when subscribing to the streaming services. Just over 30 percent said they've left a service due to a lack of bingeable content. At 87 percent of respondents, serialised drama was the highest ranked bingeable genre of content. 

In line with Sweden being the biggest bingers and expressing the most emphatic preference for binge-watching all or most of their entertainment shows, 55 percent of their Swedish sample also said they binged because they actively enjoyed the experience of watching multiple episodes. 

The statistics show that binge-watching is a popular activity among Americans, with 70% of people engaging in it. The average session lasts for 3 hours and 8 minutes, while 20% of viewers watch between 5-10 episodes at once. The statistics of how many Americans that are being binge-watchers has increased by 20% due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies show that binge watchers are more likely prone towards anxiety and depression. 

One show that I know many Swedish people have liked to binge-watch is the Netflix TV-show Young Royals. Young Royals is a Swedish teen drama romance TV series on Netflix. Set at the fictional elite boarding school Hillerska, the plot primarily follows the fictional Prince Wilhelm of Sweden (Edvin Ryding), his romance with fellow student Simon Eriksson (Omar Rudberg), and the resulting drama. The show was created by Lisa Ambjörn, Lars Beckung, and Camilla Holter, and premiered on July 1 2021. On September 2021 the series was renewed for a second season, which was released on November 1 2022. The series also released its third season on March 11th 2024. I have purposely avoided to watch the episodes once they were released in order to be able to binge-watch it.