Binge-watching, the act of watching large amounts of television at a time, has become a popular phenomenon internationally; however, it has yet to be sufficiently defined. In order to define binge-watching, data was collected on specific watching instances from 216 undergraduate students at a large research university. Hierarchical and k-means cluster analyses were conducted in Phase I to empirically determine how binge-watching should be defined. In Phase II, that definition was tested by correlating the number of instances of binge-watching in a one-week period, collected by seven days of daily diary logs, with several theoretically related measures including body mass index, dissociative tendencies, psychological distress, compulsion to watch, boredom proneness, and escapism through watching. The data-driven definition was found to be that eight hours or more of continuous watching was binge-watching, while anything less than that was not. In Phase II, the frequency of binge-watching through the seven-day period was calculated based on that new definition. The frequency of binge-watching was positively correlated with body mass index and dissociative tendencies with statistical significance at the alpha = .05 level. Compulsion to watch was not statistically significant; however, there was a positive correlation. These findings indicate that the proposed data-driven definition has concurrent validity. Psychological distress, boredom proneness, and escapism through watching were not statistically significantly related to binge-watching frequency, nor did the effect sizes indicate a correlation may exist. Potential reasons for these results are discussed. The definition found in this study will be helpful to other researchers as research into binge-watching continues to grow.

This project is a transnational case study on the binge-watching and media habits of sixty interviewees from Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Israel, Kenya, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. First, it zooms in and asks what habits interviewees had at the time of the interview. How did interviewees habitually stop watching for the day? What cues in their environment were most likely to successfully trigger the end of a watch session, and which were most likely to fail? Second, it zooms out, and investigates how robust interviewees’ media habits were when faced with major habit discontinuities. When interviewees moved across borders, found partners or lost them, found employment or left it, had children or had children move out, did it affect their video watching habits? Which life events were most strongly associated with habit changes? It uses interviews grounded in trace data (platform logs of user behavior) from several major video platforms in order to study what habits people have around watching video, and if those habits are rigid or elastic when confronted with major life events. Using trace data as a prompt during interviews made it possible to elicit details of repetitive behavior, and also to observe how that behavior changed over time. This research finds that binge-watching, and video habits more generally, are a state, not a trait. They can be altered by changing cues in viewers’ environments. Some cues are more successful than others at ending individual viewing sessions. The end of an episode or the sense of time having passed are the least successful, and the loss of a given kind of content or being interrupted by a concrete, immediate obligation to pay attention elsewhere are the most successful. For major life events, different life events have different effects. A high degree of cognitive migration is associated with changes in what people watch after a move. Sharing a household with other people is associated with alternating between episodes of different shows, as well as with exposure to different watching practices and content which are adapted as people move through time and across borders.

The relatively new phenomenon of binge watching presents a dramatic shift from the norm of traditional television viewing. However, is this ubiquitously popular media marathon that contains negative connotations really bad for you? A survey administered to 157 television binge-watchers identified the role of stress and self-control in influencing both the gratifications sought and the consequences of binge watching through the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The current study found that binge watching to avoid problems is a commonly employed strategy for individuals to cope with stress. However, engaging in binge-watching behavior as a coping mechanism to purposefully avoid problems can result in feelings of guilt and regret. It is also surprising that self-control has no impact on one's binge watching gratifications. The findings of this thesis encourage future researchers and binge watching lovers to view this new behavior from a new perspective and to practice it with caution.

Asian cultures have been heavily influenced by Western culture due to globalization. Video on demand (VOD) services provide a means to quantify the westernization of Asian cultures, especially those within South Korea. As the majority of current binge-watching studies have been conducted utilizing U.S. samples, there is a need for comparative research between the two cultures, to see if westernization can be quantified via these means. The current study examined the relative levels of five Korean binge-watching motivations (enjoyment, efficiency, recommendation of others, perceived control, fandom) and eight American binge-watching motivations (escape, information, engagement, relaxation, passing time, hedonism, social, habit) sourced from prior research, among a Korean (n =113) and American (n = 193) sample. Results indicated that both Americans and Koreans scored highly on enjoyment and engagement. Americans scored higher on nine out of the 13 motivations: efficiency, recommendation of others, fandom, escape, relaxation, passing time, hedonism, social, and habit. Koreans scored higher on two out of the 13 motivations: information and perceived control. Also, Americans binge-watched more frequently than Koreans. In conclusion, the outcome of the study suggests where society is going with VOD services and binge-watching as a deeper understanding of binge-watching in a cross-cultural setting. Future researchers should consider a qualitative study to overcome the limited range of TV viewing motivational scales and a random sampling, assuring diversity in sample groups.

Asian cultures have been heavily influenced by Western culture due to globalization. Video on demand (VOD) services provide a means to quantify the westernization of Asian cultures, especially those within South Korea. As the majority of current binge-watching studies have been conducted utilizing U.S. samples, there is a need for comparative research between the two cultures, to see if westernization can be quantified via these means. The current study examined the relative levels of five Korean binge-watching motivations (enjoyment, efficiency, recommendation of others, perceived control, fandom) and eight American binge-watching motivations (escape, information, engagement, relaxation, passing time, hedonism, social, habit) sourced from prior research, among a Korean (n =113) and American (n = 193) sample. Results indicated that both Americans and Koreans scored highly on enjoyment and engagement. Americans scored higher on nine out of the 13 motivations: efficiency, recommendation of others, fandom, escape, relaxation, passing time, hedonism, social, and habit. Koreans scored higher on two out of the 13 motivations: information and perceived control. Also, Americans binge-watched more frequently than Koreans. In conclusion, the outcome of the study suggests where society is going with VOD services and binge-watching as a deeper understanding of binge-watching in a cross-cultural setting. Future researchers should consider a qualitative study to overcome the limited range of TV viewing motivational scales and a random sampling, assuring diversity in sample groups.

Sedan TV-apparaten uppfanns har man varit begränsad till linjär-Tv, både när det gäller utbud och antal avsnitt. Antalet kanaler har ökat och därigenom även antalet program användaren kan kolla på. Men tittandet sker fortfarande på en och samma stationära TV. Med utvecklingen av Video on Demand-tjänster (VoD) kom möjligheten att titta på serier var man vill och hur man vill. Detta nya medium utvecklade nya tittarmönster. Ett av dessa är binge-watching som inte så många har hört talas om men som många har en stor koppling till. Begreppet innebär att konsumenten ägnar sig åt att sträcktitta på en TV-serie. De flesta digitala tjänster försöker fokusera på att behålla publiken en längre tid framför skärmen för att tjäna mer pengar och därför utvecklar de plattformar med funktioner som uppmuntrar till binge-watching. Det är av intresse för hela samhället att förstå varför vi blir övertalade att titta längre på serier för att kunna förstå sina tittarbeteende och därigenom kontrollera dem. Syftet med vår studie är att undersöka vilka faktorer som uppmuntrar mest till binge-watching. För att svara på vår frågeställning ska vi också svara på arbetsfrågorna: “Vilka faktorer hos Netflix och Viaplay uppmuntrar mest till binge-watching?” och “Vilka externa faktorer uppmuntrar till binge-watching?” För att få svar på de frågorna har 17 medieteknikstudenter från KTH dagligen under en hel vecka fått svara på en logg angående sina tittarvanor. Vi har också genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer för att kunna fördjupa oss i deras användning av VoD-tjänster. Vårt arbete gav bra och användbara resultat med hjälp av de kvalitativa - och kvantitativa metoder vi skapade. De kan användas i en framtida undersökning om tv-tittande för att nå en publik som binge-watchar och därigenom utveckla studien. Resultatet visade att den automatiska uppspelningsfunktionen påverkar tittarna till att fortsätta titta vidare på en serie där bara 5 av användarna kunde motstå funktionen. Vi kom också fram till att tittarmiljön och valet av elektronisk enhet bidrog till ett ökat maratontittande. Mer än hälften av deltagarna föredrog att titta på serier på en större skärm. Många av dem erkände att TV och en skön soffa eller säng uppmuntrar till binge-watching. Undersökningen visade också att det inte bara är tekniska funktioner som uppmuntrar till binge-watching utan också tiden som användaren kan ägna åt deras tittande samt orsaken till tittandet. Studien visade att många funktioner hos båda VoD-tjänsterna liknar varandra. Den största skillnaden var att i Viaplay är det möjligt att pausa den automatiska uppspelningsfunktionen medan Netflix kan man inte pausa nedräkningen. Ingen av våra deltagare kände till den möjligheten hos Viaplay och därför kunde vi inte dra några slutsatser kring huruvida denna skillnad mellan tjänsterna uppmuntrar till binge-watching. / Since television was invented one has been limited to linear television, both in terms of programs and the number of episodes. The number of channels has since then increased as has the number of available programs. But the watching still takes place on the same TV-set. With the introduction of the Video on Demand services (VoD) one got the opportunity to watch TV series wherever and wherever one wants. This has triggered new viewing patterns. One is binge-watching, a concept that many are unfamiliar with, even though many actually watch TV in that way. The term means that the consumer watch several episodes of a TV series at a time. Most digital services try, due to financial reasons, to extend the time the viewers spend at the TV, and therefore they develop platforms with features that encourage binge-watching. It is in the interest of the whole community to understand why and how we are persuaded to look longer on series in order to understand our viewing behavior and thereby stay in control. The purpose of our study is to investigate what factors that encourage the most to binge-watching. To answer this we also choose to look into: "What factors in Netflix and Viaplay encourage binge-watching the most?" and "Which external factors encourage binge-watching?". To find answers we took help from 17 media technology students at KTH that daily during a week was asked to logg their viewing habits. We have also conducted semistructured interviews with them to get in-depth knowledge of their use of VoD-services. Our work provides interesting and useful results based on the qualitative and quantitative methods we used, and is a good foundation for future studies of television viewing aimed at better understand the binge-watching phenomena. Our study shows that the autoplay function encourage viewers to continue to watch series. Only five of our study participants could resist this feature. We also conclude that the comfort-level of the viewing environment and the choice of electronic viewing device influence the tendency to marathon view. More than half of our study participants prefer to watch series on a larger screen. Many of them acknowledged that a TV-sized screen and a comfortable couch or bed encouraged binge-watching. Not only technical features encourage binge-watching. Also the time the user can devote to their viewing and the reason for viewing influence it. The study showed that many features in both the studied VoD-services are very similar. The biggest difference between them is that it in Viaplay is possible to pause the autoplay function while you can not do this in Netflix. But none of our participants knew that Viaplay had this feature and we could therefore not draw any conclusions as to whether this difference affected the binge-watching or not.

Submitted by Caroline Xavier (caroline.xavier@pucrs.br) on 2017-07-17T18:44:48Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_JEFERSON_CRISTIANO_CORTES_ZAMBOM_CARDOSO_COMPLETO.pdf: 2414682 bytes, checksum: a28fa961a9801c5698c6ff6e48429406 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-17T18:44:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DIS_JEFERSON_CRISTIANO_CORTES_ZAMBOM_CARDOSO_COMPLETO.pdf: 2414682 bytes, checksum: a28fa961a9801c5698c6ff6e48429406 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-03-28 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior - CAPES / This dissertation analyzes the phenomenon called binge-watching and how this new way of watching television is changing the behavior of viewers who come to play roles of users, hiperviewers and multipliers. For this was done an anlytical in two stages. In the first was done an monitoring, measurement and analysis of the comments of this public on Twitter before, during and after the launch of sitcom Orange Is The New Black (OITNB), production of Netflix, in addition to posts in Brazilian official accounts (@OITNBrazil) and American (@OITNB) to check public behavior in these spaces. In the second stage was done an monitoring, measurement and analysis of the comments of this public on Twitter before, during and after an marathon simulation, in the pay television, of sitcom The Walking Dead (TWD), production of AMC, displayed by Fox, in addition to posts in Brazilian official accounts (@TWDBrasil) and American (@WalkingDead_AMC), to see what changes when the binge-watching is spontaneous, occurring in a file environment, in which one can determine when will be marathon or not, or when the binge-watching is induced, occurring in a flow environment in which the viewer can not determine when it will do the marathon, can only choose whether to follow what it is being broadcast on television or not. It was contacted that the official accounts are restricted to participation of moderators and in Brazil the public does not use the term binge-watching, but marathon, watching the series mainly on launch day, when in file, and not having a strong attachment to the simulations. To support this research were used authors as Jenkins (2009), Kinder, (1991), Cannito (2010), Bauman (2008/2009/2013), Anderson (2006), Jenkins, Green and Ford (2014), Lipovetsky and Serroy (2012), Johnson (2012), Shirky (2011), Scolari (2014), Mattos (2013), Negroponte (1995), Eco (1986), Foucault (2002), Wolton (1996) and McLuhan (1979).. The methodology used was the Depth Hermeneutics as Thompson's vision (1995), using as technique of structuring data collection Bardin's Content Analysis (2011) and the analysis of data Computer Discourse Mediated Analysis (CDMA ) Herring (2004). / Esta disserta??o analisa o fen?meno chamado binge-watching e como esse novo modo de assistir televis?o vem modificando o comportamento dos telespectadores, que passam a desempenhar pap?is de usu?rios, hipertelespectadores e multiplicadores. Para isso foi realizada uma an?lise em duas etapas. Na primeira foi feito um acompanhamento, mensura??o e an?lise dos coment?rios desse p?blico no Twitter antes, durante e ap?s o lan?amento do seriado Orange Is The New Black (OITNB), produ??o do Netflix, al?m das postagens nas contas oficiais brasileira (@OITNBrazil) e americana (@OITNB), a fim de verificar o comportamento do p?blico nesses espa?os. Numa segunda etapa foi feito um acompanhamento, mensura??o e an?lise dos coment?rios desse p?blico no Twitter antes, durante e ap?s uma simula??o de maratona, na televis?o paga, da s?rie The Walking Dead (TWD), produ??o da AMC, exibida pela Fox, al?m das postagens nas contas oficiais brasileira (@TWDBrasil) e americana (@WalkingDead_AMC), a fim de verificar o que modifica quando o binge-watching ? espont?neo, ocorrendo em um ambiente de arquivo, no qual a pessoa pode determinar quando vai maratonar ou n?o, ou quando o binge-watching ? induzido, ocorrendo em um ambiente de fluxo, no qual o telespectador n?o pode determinar quando ir? fazer a maratona, podendo apenas escolher se ir? acompanhar o que est? sendo transmitido pela televis?o ou n?o. Contatou-se que as contas oficiais ficam restritas a participa??o dos moderadores e que no Brasil o p?blico n?o utiliza o termo binge-watching, mas sim maratona, assistindo aos seriados principalmente no dia do lan?amento, quando em arquivo, e n?o tendo uma forte ades?o as simula??es. Para embasar essa pesquisa foram usados autores como Jenkins (2009), Kinder (1991), Cannito (2010), Bauman (2008/2009/2013), Anderson (2006), Jenkins, Green e Ford (2014), Lipovetsky e Serroy (2012), Johnson (2012), Shirky (2011), Scolari (2014), Mattos (2013), Negroponte (1995), Eco (1986), Foucault (2002), Wolton (1996) e McLuhan (1979). A metodologia utilizada foi a Hermen?utica de Profundidade conforme a vis?o de Thompson (1995), usando como t?cnica de estrutura??o da coleta de dados a An?lise de Conte?do de Bardin (2011) e para a an?lise dos dados a An?lise de Discurso Mediada por Computador (CDMA) de Herring (2004).

Binge eating and drinking have been studied with respect to stress, anxiety, and depression, but little is known about the emerging phenomenon of binge watching television programming. Guided by escape theory and the uses and gratification theory, this cross-sectional, correlational study addressed multivariate relations of binge drinking, binge eating, and binge watching with depression, anxiety, and stress among 102 college students ages 18 to 24. Multivariate canonical correlation results revealed that participants with low anxiety scores tended to have low scores on binge eating and drinking but high scores on binge watching. Participants with low stress scores and high anxiety scores tended to have low scores on binge watching and eating. In a regression model, anxiety, stress, and gender were important predictors of binge eating. Binge drinking was influenced by where a student lived, fraternity/sorority status, athletic participation, depression, and stress. Binge watching was best predicted by a model including stress, anxiety, athletic participation, and whether binge episodes were planned or unplanned. More binge watching occurred among participants not involved in athletics to pass time but not for information. Results may provide college mental health student services centers with empirical data to create programs to identify maladaptive binge behaviors among students and help them more effectively cope with stress, anxiety, and depression.

Entertainment is an ever-changing medium, and television specifically has gone through many technological innovations since its bright beginnings. These innovations have consistently changed the way stories are told. Stylistic shifts in key elements ranging from shot format to the way shows are constructed can be seen especially clearly in horror which does not have the same narrative constraints as many other genres, and therefore more room to experiment. By tracking changes in the narrative formats of serialized and anthology horror shows, I define a new era of television brought about by the prevalence of streaming, and the rise of binge culture.

Syfte: Studien syftar till att få en djupare förståelse i hur användarens tittarvanor påverkas av Netflix design och teknik, och huruvida dessa uppmuntrar användaren till Binge Watching. Teori: Studien använder sig främst av Sidneyeve Matrix (2014) teori och forskning om det tekniska fenomenet Binge Watching från artikeln “The Netflix Effect: Teens, Binge Watching and on Demand Media Trends” samt Jonas Löwgrens (2002) teori om kvalitet på användning från artikeln “The use qualities of digital designs, draft 1.0”. Även Gunnar Nygren och Ingela Wadbrings (2013) forskning om den tekniska utvecklingen från publikationen “På väg mot medievärlden 2020” används i undersökningen. Metod: Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod baserad på enskilda djupgående intervjuer. Resultat: Resultatanalysen indikerar att Netflix teknik och funktioner har en stor påverkan på användaren och dess tittarvanor. Informanterna upplever att de utan dessa funktioner inte hade använt tjänsten i lika stor utsträckning och att en lojalitet och känslomässig hängivenhet upprättats efter Netflix många taktiker att förbättra den personliga användarupplevelsen. De tekniska funktionerna har även resulterat i att samtliga informanter kontinuerligt Binge Watchar och inte sällan ser fler avsnitt av en serie än från början tänkt. / Purpose: The study aims to gain a deeper understanding of how the users viewing habits are influenced by Netflix design and technology, and whether they encourage the user to Binge Watching. Theory: The study mainly uses the theory and research by Sidneyeve Matrix (2014) on the technical phenomenon Binge Watching from the article “The Netflix Effect: Teens, Binge Watching and on Demand Media Trends” and the theory about the use qualities by Jonas Löwgren (2002) from the article “The use qualities of digital designs, draft 1.0”. The research on technological developments by Gunnar Nygren and Ingela Wadbring (2013) from the publication “På väg mot medievärlden 2020” is also used in this study. Method: The study is based on a qualitative research method based on individual in-depth interviews. Results: The result analysis indicates that Netflix technologies and features have a transparent impact on users and their viewing habits. The informants felt that they without these features would not have used the service to the same extent and that loyalty and emotional commitment was established due to the many tactics Netflix used to improve the personal user experience. The technical features have also resulted in an increased Binge Watching for all of the informants who also often view more episodes of a series than originally thought. It also became clear that it was the technology, features and wider range that made Netflix the most preferred VoD service among the informants.