Binge watching and serial viewing: Comparing new media viewing habits in 2015 and 2020

INTRODUCTION: The current study explores binge watching as a functional entertainment choice, and examines similarities and differences between it, appointment viewing, and serial viewing in terms of prevalence and technologies used over time. METHODS/MEASUREMENTS: Two surveys were conducted in fall 2015 (N = 373, 62% female and the mean age = 22.01 [SD = 5.92]) and in fall 2020 (N = 732, 69% female, mean age = 21.13 [SD = 4.98]. Surveys explored the frequency and duration of engaging in binge watching, serial viewing, and appointment viewing, as well as the role of habit in binge watching and the technologies employed to view content. FINDINGS/RESULTS: Frequency of binge watching and serial viewing increased from 2015 to 2020, and levels remain elevated from estimates just prior to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, which saw all types of viewing increase. Participants report most frequently engaging in serial viewing, followed binge watching, followed by appointment viewing. Appointment viewing frequency and duration has decreased. A binge-watching habit explains considerable variance in the frequency of binge watching. CONCLUSIONS: Binge watching has become a more common way to watch TV than traditional appointment viewing, which has decreased in both the frequency and time spent between 2015 and 2020. Serial viewing – a self-paced consumption of serialized narrative content over days, weeks, or months – is the most common way of watching television content. Serial viewing and binge watching are more closely associated with viewing content on television, demonstrating a shift from the personal screen to the living room.