Maybe don’t copycat Netflix so much, other streamers.
These days, 89 percent of U.S. households subscribe to a streaming service, and most of them carry four or more platforms simultaneously. With an overall industry churn rate of 37 percent, subscriber retention is key. For best odds: release episodes weekly.
A new study from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn., shared first with The Hollywood Reporter, has found that a “drip” release strategy leads to a 48 percent greater short-term retention of subscriptions vs. binge-drops.
For the study, CMU partnered with an unnamed “large multinational telecommunications provider” just ahead of its rollout of four series: Big Little Lies, The Muppets, The Young Pope, and Unforgettable. The TELCO had the rights to manipulate the release strategy of these shows as it saw fit, providing researchers the variable control needed. The randomized field trial assigned viewers, average age 49, either a drip release schedule or an all-at-once release schedule. The study consisted of two stages of five weeks apiece.
CMU found that both strategies have their “own merits.”
Weekly releases can “deter consumers from engaging with the focal show,” and push them to “explore [the streamer’s] catalog more actively,” the report states. These users tend to “visit the platform more frequently during the whole release period.” That’s a good thing — unless you’re a binge viewer.
The drip play “may lead to loss of engagement as some consumers may prefer to wait until more episodes are released before starting to watch a focal show,” it continued. Some may churn out in the process.
Still, overall, it is the better method to hold captive an average subscriber in the short term. Of course, not all people are the average person. “Gradual releases negatively affected subscription retention among users with strong binge-watching behaviors,” the study reads.
Taylor (Rain Spencer) and Belly (Lola Tung) in ‘The Summer I Turned Pretty’
Stephanie Branchu/Amazon Content Services
There’s a third option here, one that has been used to success by Amazon Prime Video. A separate study by streaming-measurement company Luminate found that nearly three-quarters of all new series released by Prime Video this year have been “batch” (binge) releases. But with Amazon, by the time a show gets to its third season — and sometimes earlier — Prime Video series switch to weekly releases. Amazon will often give these later seasons a head start by releasing their first two or three episodes with the season premiere. Life is about compromise.
Long before CMU’s study, Luminate pushed the narrative that weekly releases “lead to longer-sustained engagement” whereas binge releases often provide “flash-in-the-pan viewership.”
Luminate likes what it calls Amazon’s “flexible” approach.
“Once a series has captured audience attention, the release model can be changed for subsequent seasons, keeping engaged viewers coming back week to week and, crucially, potentially keeping them subscribed for multiple months,” the study reads.
Nobody tell Netflix.
Actually, Netflix already does a version of “batch” releases with its biggest series. Recently, the streamer split the final season of Cobra Kai into three parts — it’s doing the same for the final season of Stranger Things. Bridgerton, Wednesday and Squid Game had their most-recent seasons halved.
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are by far the largest streaming platforms in terms of subscribers — though Prime Video’s (especially secretive) numbers are certainly skewed by broader Prime subscriptions — and they have the lowest churn rates in the industry. They’re doing something right.
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