In a surprise April first move, Netflix announced they will no longer allow subscribers to binge watch their favorite programs. Executive vice president of programming, Nada Pursan released the following statement:
“Netflix creates high quality programming in partnership with some of the world’s most gifted artists. We take pride in our work and want our subscribers to appreciate the content we provide. Just one season, of one show, takes hundreds and hundreds of hours to produce. However, when we release a new season to the public, many people often watch the entire season in only a day or two. This behavior is sometimes referred to as binge watching. Although Netflix is grateful that people love our programming, we are troubled by a trend that so quickly consumes and discards such important content. Therefore, we have made the innovative decision to prevent people from hurrying through our shows without truly taking time to enjoy and meditate upon their viewing experience. Effective immediately, we will no longer allow individuals to watch more than one show from the same series on the same day. In other words, we are going to prohibit all forms of binge watching. Instead, people will be allowed to watch one show per day, or in some cases, one show per week. For individuals who do not want to wait a day or week, we will allow them to pay a per episode fee ($1.99-$4.99) for every show they watch above the one episode limit. We believe these changes will help people more fully enjoy the time and energy that goes into the creation of all our programming.”
Along with this announcement, Netflix also stated that they are pushing more aggressively towards providing original content rather than streaming older, popular television series. To demonstrate their commitment, director of program acquisitions, Imma Lyon, mentioned that starting today (April 1st) the following television series would no longer stream on Netflix:
-Gilmore Girls
-The Office
-Better Call Saul
-The Walking Dead
-House of Cards
-Sherlock
-Orange is the New Black
-Parks and Recreation
-Breaking Bad
Although these moves might seem bold or even foolish to many, Netflix believes their customers will understand. Netflix’s customer collaboration specialist Bea S. Tori put it this way: “Netflix is all about choice and we just made it a lot easier for our customers to make their choices.”
Douglas Bursch is the author of Posting Peace: Why Social Media Divides Us and What We Can Do About It. He also hosts The Fairly Spiritual Show podcast.