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Introduction
Media consumption has changed dramatically in recent years. Viewers have been moving away from consuming traditional broadcast channels towards online video consumption (Netflix, 2013; Schweidel and Moe, 2016). In the traditional format, viewers enjoyed shows according to the schedule and sequence in which the networks broadcast them. But online consumption medium has offered more control to viewers, as now, they can determine their own viewing schedule through digital video recorders or on-demand programming (Littleton, 2014). Because of these trends, new patterns of media consumption have emerged.
A recent phenomenon that has been observed among TV viewers is "binge watching". The definition of binge watching is still evolving. Oxford Dictionary (2013) defines binge viewing as "to watch multiple episodes of a television program in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming,". Netflix and Harris Interactive offer another definition of binge watching as "watching between 2-6 episodes of the same TV show in one sitting" (Netflix, 2013). The Digital Democracy Survey offers an alternative definition as "watching three or more episodes of a TV series in one sitting". Nielsen's (2013) study finds that 88 per cent of Netflix users and 70 per cent of Hulu Plus users reported watching at least three episodes of the same program in one day. Schweidel and Moe (2016) offer a somewhat broad definition of binge watching as the consumption of multiple episodes of a television series in a short period of time. They propose that binge watching is characterized by two common elements: first, there is a heavy rate of consumption, which may occur within a single session or across multiple sessions within a short period of time. Second, viewers consume multiple episodes of the same series.
While many studies define binge watching in terms of the number of episodes watched, a definition in terms of exact amount of time spent to be branded as binge watching is yet to evolve. Based on the above definitions, we propose that the "heavy consumption" can be attributed to watching a minimum of 2-3 episodes of the same series, or at least one hour of the same TV series in one sitting. For example, watching at least three episodes of "Big Bang Theory" in succession in one sitting will attribute...