TORONTO -- When it comes to bingeing a series, Netflix members do not chill.
In its first comprehensive look at bingeing habits, Netflix has found that on average, members who completed the first season of a series did so in just one week by watching a little over two hours a day.
"I do think what you are seeing is that when you give members control over how slowly or how quickly that they want to watch their favourite shows, they're going to do it relatively quickly, if they're invested in the series," said Cindy Holland, Netflix's vice president of original content in an interview.
But just how long they binge for depends on the type of show.
Series viewed more than two hours per day were identified in the study as "devoured." They included high-energy narratives in the sci-fi, horror and thriller genres, like "The Walking Dead," "Sense8" and "The Fall," which was the most devoured show globally.
On average, series that fell in the "devoured" category were completed by members in four days, with two hours and 30 minutes of viewing per day.
Binged series viewed less than two hours per day were considered "savoured." They included thought-provoking dramas and those with complex narratives, like "House of Cards" and "Narcos," which was the most savoured series in Canada.
Also savoured were irreverent comedies including "Love," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "BoJack Horseman," which was the most savoured series globally.
On average, series that fell in the "savoured" category were completed by members in six days, with one hour and 45 minutes of viewing per day.
"If you think about any time a series makes a viewer stop and think or have to unpack, consider what's going on either intellectually or emotionally, then they tend to savour the series a little bit longer than those that are at the other end of the spectrum, say really propulsive, genre series," said Holland.
The "Netflix Binge Scale" study also had a "median" category, in which members completed a series in five days, on average, with two hours and 10 minutes of viewing per day.
Falling in the middle of the spectrum were crime dramas like "Bloodline" and dramatic comedies like "Orange is the New Black."
The study was conducted by the company's internal data resource team. It examined global viewing of the first season of more than 100 serialized TV series across more than 190 countries, between October 2015 and May 2016.
Series were not restricted by launch dates, runtime or number of episodes. Netflix says where a series falls on the scale has no relation to viewership.
Holland said the findings will not have an impact on how long Netflix keeps a series on the service.
And she doesn't expect these kinds of findings will have a lot of influence on storytellers and content creators.
"We allow a lot of creative freedom for our storytellers, so how they structure and create their series is up to them."
