One in Five UK Viewers Call In Sick to Binge-Watch TV
According to a Radio Times survey of 5,500 British TV viewers, 75% of viewers say they've binge-watched more than four hours of TV, while half say they've binge-watched more than eight hours.
Binge-watching is when a person watches many episodes of a TV show at one time.
In the past, people could only binge-watch old shows. But since it began making its own shows in 2012, Netflix has released full seasons all on one day, allowing viewers to watch every episode all at once. As early as 2013, 61% of Netflix viewers said they often watched between two and six episodes of a show at a time.
Some people even watch their favorite TV shows instead of sleeping or going to work. About 80% of people in the Radio Times survey said they had lost sleep so they could finish a binge, and almost one in five said they had called in sick for work so they could continue watching a show.
The Radio Times' Tim Glanfield says that the way people watch TV has changed, and few want to wait a week for a new episode or a year for a new season. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu let people watch whenever they want, and many traditional TV networks now also offer streaming.
However, while streaming services allow users to watch almost anywhere, according to Radio Times, 57% of UK viewers say they still usually binge-watch on their TVs, while only 33% use laptops and 27% use smartphones.
