Bingers Rule

70% of Americans binge-view movies and TV shows, ingesting, on average, five hours of viewing at a crack.  60% rank Internet content-streaming as their most valued among paid on-line services, and younger viewers (14-25) value streaming content more valuable than TV. Roughly 46% of American households subscribe to a streaming service.

These changes in entertainment content viewing present a two-edged sword: on the one hand it threatens traditional media business models, but. on the other, also presents great opportunity for content providers, particularly Hollywood, to reach the next generation.

Kevin Westcott, a media consultant told CMG, "Millenials are streaming more than watching TV, they value streaming more than TV, and when they do watch TV they are doing, on average, four other things at the same time."

36% of Americans binge-view movies or TV shows on a weekly basis.  Dramas are most popular among bingers followed by comedies, and than reality TV shows.  "Television is still very powerful but for younger generations social media has eclipsed TV", says Westcott.

Binge viewing is good for the cinema, most notably for franchise films. It gets people interested in the series and paves the way to viewing the next installment on the 'big' screen.  Traditional broadcast TV is losing its audience and will continue to do so, as more and more people pick and choose what they watch, when they watch, and on what platform they watch.