Binge or appointment: A study on TV plus appointment viewing as the preference of screen media consumption on OTT platforms

Abstract

Binge watching has become the preferred way for viewing on streaming platforms. With the competition getting intense, streaming platforms are looking at way to engage the subscribers. TV plus appointment viewing has been introduced on streaming platforms. The viewing preferences of the audience have not been studied on whether the return of appointment viewing in a new form is acceptable to the audience that is habituated to binge watching. Streaming platforms have made content libraries available to subscribers to control and the menus are personalizing content using algorithms. Having given the control to the user to pick the menu, the experimentation with TV plus appointment viewing needs to be studied. This paper studies the audience preferences using a purposive sampling method. The findings of the casual survey led to some interesting findings. Binge watching continues to be the ideal method of consuming content and viewers are not ready to give up the personalized control over the menu. So, while streaming platforms may be experimenting with delivery methods, audiences want to watch shows when and how they want. Instant gratification and control over the content menu are important arguments for binge watching. Future research may have to study decreasing attention spans and ideal lengths of episodes to engage audiences.