Television Studies, We Need to Talk about “Binge-Viewing”

Abstract

This article argues that a crucial task for a renewed investment in television audience research now is to investigate the range of practices currently covered by the label of binge-viewing. Notwithstanding the widespread application of the concept of binge-viewing within both industry commentary and academic research, this article will suggest that the concept has reached the point where it has outlived its usefulness for television studies. Rather than staying with what has become an extremely imprecise term, the argument continues, television studies should turn its attention toward generating more located and nuanced observational accounts of the evolving “cultures of use” within consumer households in order to develop a more accurate and usable set of terms to describe what is actually happening in domestic spaces as people watch television.