for those that dont like to click on articles
Netflix's days of binge model releases could be coming to an end, as the streaming service reportedly could move to weekly releases for some shows.
Binge model releases are a staple of Netflix, but a new report claims the streaming service wants to begin moving away from them and embrace more week-to-week releases. The streaming wars have had a great impact on Netflix in recent years. For all the success that has been found through major blockbusters like The Gray Man or its biggest shows like Stranger Things, the increased competition has put even greater pressure on these originals to perform. This is becoming increasingly more difficult as Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+, Peacock, and more ramp up original programming.
Due to the influx of content that is immediately within reach from streaming services, there have been a lot of conversations about how Netflix can change and adapt to stay ahead of the game. 2022 has been quite informative in that regard. Netflix previously confirmed plans for a lower-priced plan supported by ads that will come in 2023. The service has also become a lot harsher with its cancelations, especially for negatively reviewed originals like Cowboy Beebop and Resident Evil. The latter and the growing importance Netflix places on viewership in the first week and month of a show's release have reignited conversations about if the binge release model is still best.
It now appears that Netflix could be on the verge of making a big change. In a new edition of the Puck News newsletter, it is suggested that Netflix wants to move away from binge model releases in some form. Netflix currently uses weekly episode drops for some reality competition shows, but there might soon be a time when it becomes used for Netflix's biggest originals as a means of keeping viewers engaged over a longer period of time. Matthew Belloni noted in the newsletter that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings "has seemed unwilling to pivot off the binge model because he hasn’t needed or wanted to. Now, it appears, he does."
Netflix has already begun experimenting with other release models besides the binge model that worked so well for them. Recently, subscribers have seen Ozark season 4 and Stranger Things season 4 split into two parts. Netflix plans to do the same with Manifest season 4. The potential move to weekly episode drops for some shows would finally see Netflix revert to the original television release model that Disney+, Prime Video, and its other major streaming competition also use.
There have long been calls for Netflix to begin releasing episodes weekly. It gives audiences an easier way to experience the show without worrying about seeing spoilers for how Cobra Kai season 5 ends on the day all 10 episodes are released. It also aids word of mouth on great shows to allow the viewership to grow as the season progresses. Meanwhile, Netflix would benefit from having audiences return to the service weekly for new episodes and seeing their shows start brand-new conversations and theorizing that the binge model does not allow for. However, since Netflix already confirmed that Stranger Things season 5 will keep its binge release model, it will be fascinating to see what major show could potentially get the weekly release treatment.
Jojo fridays may be back :meow-fiesta:
:dio-walk: :jotaro-walk:
The binge model never made sense with subscriptions anyways, I'm surprised it took them this long. Piracy is the clear winner anyways. The more streaming competition there is the more it makes having a piracy alternative that much better.
Low effort is vpn and streamio, higher effort is making a htpc and setting up sonarr and radarr.
Honestly some of the most fun I've had online is during the week between episodes speculating what will happen. I kinda like a weekly basis. Makes it last longer and the waits can be cool.
Exactly! And sometimes its nice to talk to your friends about the show while everyone is just at episode 3. Otherwise either everyone has finished it or everyone is at different spots
Twin Peaks The Return wouldn't have been the same on a binge model. When Episode 8 came out, everyone went nuts.
Are sonarr and radarr competing or complementary softwares? First or second time seeing them. I'm currently thinking about setting up an orange pi as a torrentbox for the house, so currently looking at options that even someone non-tech savvy could use.
Complimentary. Sonarr is for TV, Radarr is for movies. There's also Lidarr for music and a bunch of others.
No idea, to be honest. I think one came first and by the time it occurred to them to add the other someone had already created it as a separate client.
Not sure a raspberry pi will have enough power to encode stuff or whatever (it's been awhile since I played with one, I know there's newer versions out that are better now). It's really not super easy to set up but it functions very very well once it does. You basically can punch in your devices ip for the web applets for sonarr and radarr and add movies/shows to them and they'll automatically scrape torrent trackers for new episodes, so the whole thing becomes automated once you add stuff. Then you just use plex.
The easier alternative is to just run streamio off a device (which is still using torrents as the backbone, everything is going to need a vpn) which just means switching your TV's output to your streamio device and manually searching for whatever you want in the moment. Actually the one biggest annoyance you can run into with streamio is that stuff with only a few seeders just doesn't work because it doesn't download and then play, it tries to torrent files from the beginning to end so you can immediately start watching while it's downloading. Radarr/sonarr will actually download things fully so if it's a slow torrent you'll eventually get there. Also you never have to switch devices, you can just open plex on whatever you have wherever you are and it'll stream from your server.
Not sure a raspberry pi will have enough power to encode stuff or whatever
Noted. That's even more concern since this is my first time working with an Orange Pi (since raspberry's are still so expensive) and I'm not sure how well they stack up yet. My big thing is that I torrent like hell and would like to make a dedicated machine to run them, while at the same time we're trying to cut costs in the household... So this sounds like it'd be a great solution that would let me cut netflix or something out of the equation but, yeah, we'll see. I've got an Orange Pi 3/LTS and a 2 Terrrabyte ssd and hoping for the best basically.
Oh, that's just great. I guess 2023 will be the year the streaming platforms reinvent cable.
They've been working towards that for a while now. Think they're still considering putting ads into the bottom tier sub.
I wonder if they'll do animated in-screen ads.
I use Rarbg to grab torrents and what I love about the site is that there are only very rarely annoying surprises. But a few times over the years I downloaded tv episodes with that crap. If the ads weren't animated they'd be bad but animated those fucking things are the worst.
I wonder if they’ll do animated in-screen ads.
Oh man, those dumb things where a character from another show poses in the corner and the title spins around them
My hand always fidgeted instinctively as if I could somehow grab a remote or my mouse and block them as if I had access to Magic Adblock.
idk why there are rooms full of overpaid nerds frantically asking themselves "HOW CAN WE DO MORE PROFIT" when all they need to do to retain and gain subscribers is to keep pumping out slop and stop canceling shit people like to watch
Yeah but if a show goes on long enough the union contract rates kick in and it costs more to make, so you gotta cancel it.
I'm not really educated enough to say WHY, but capitalism is just fundamentally incapable of saying "We are making enough profit right now". Capitalists will always, always, always search for new ways to make the line go even higher in the short term even if it means shooting themselves in the knees in the long run
I don't know why that's true but I know someone around here who has actually read theory can explain why, probably
Something along the lines of if one company doesn't continue growing, a competitor will, out-competing them. Which means every company has to infinitely grow or else they'll be out-competed.
The other part of trying to find more profit is about finding a better profit margin. Once they feel it is too hard to produce good content, they start to cancel and make shit content because it is cheaper.
The people in charge of this absolutely do not care about how good the content is. Just if they can get people to pay for it. Thats why shit gets worse because the capitalist dream is to successfully get people to pay for absolutely nothing, and they will get as close to that as they can.
I just mumble something about "the tendency of the rate of profit to fall" and try to make myself look like I'm some sage
Fuck I hate weekly release. I got shit memory and it's much easier for me to schedule the time to watch an entire series then trying to catch each episode weekly or waiting till they're all done and spoiled. It's like the only thing Netflix has going for it.
I usually just wait several years if need be to see shows in their entirety unless it's something I really enjoy.
Anyone with a brain has to see that the binge model only works for shows that have already been out for a while. Releasing weekly might piss a few fans off but it keeps people talking about your show week after week, which can create the gravity you need to draw new viewers in.
Not to mention that after a week, AV Club and other sites stop giving a shit about spoilers and just post major plot details in the headlines.
If they stop doing that with anime it would already help, even if most people pirate it seems this shit still causes series to be pushed out of the mainstream discussion.
The only thing that potentially excites me about this is my normie friends not expecting me to watch Media Property You're Expected To Have Seen in a single day
Jojo fridays may be back
My main thought as well. Netflix really took the hype out of Stone Ocean
I don't watch anything on Netflix but this will be good for their anime catalog so I regard this as a good move! JoJo wins!!
Boo. I want to watch every new episode of a show in one day and stay up unreasonably late :(
