There’s been a lot of discussions in regards to what the future might have in store for Netflix. After facing its first major drop in subscribers, the all-in attitude in the streaming market has taken a few steps back. Still, the company is moving forward at full speed with the hope of making up for what it lost, as well as trying to establish an ad-supported model to start covering costs. It seems that may not be the last new move they are taking.
In a new piece by Puck, it seems like Netflix is starting to test out more approaches to adding longevity to their series. Among them is embracing the weekly release and moving away from their traditional binge model. While in the past it helped a lot of projects get watched fast, it did lead to a different issue once more competition entered the market.
HBO, Disney+, Amazon Prime, and more have been in the headlines a lot more with their projects releasing weekly. That way, even smaller projects got a little boost for longevity. Whiel series like Squid Game, Stranger Things, and even recently with The Sandman manages to keep up some impressive weekly viewership after a binge release, it creates a strong dependency that every project performs the same way.
As Netflix hopes to bank on some newer projects to become their “next Stranger Things” like the live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender and One Piece, it creates a very different dynamic if they keep investing in countless shows and hoping their popularity alone will carry them. So, the move away from the binge model might help them in the long run but also requires a new key performance indicator to define the success of these shows. For now, we can only wait if they truly do start embracing this model.
Source: Puck
