We've been paying a lot of attention to how viewing habits have been changing. At some point the boxset marathon became a streaming session. We rely more on word of mouth now than posters in shop windows in deciding what to watch. Suggestion based viewing has seen shows like Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones become prime time viewing when they're not even on a big network.
This leads us on to the unusual sighting of an ad for Breaking Bad popping up during X Factor a few nights ago. It wasn't that such a crazy drama was being advertised on the most popular show on UK TV, but the fact that it was advertising the platform you could view it on: Netflix.
'I watched it on Netflix/TV' is now the status quo in describing our viewing experience. The level of immediacy is something that is causing fans of these shows to sign up. In the past it was the usual case of an American show airing weeks or even months after its domestic airdate (just look at how BBC4 only started showing Parks&Recreation four years after it started).
But now by advertising that a show will air the next night in the UK, Netflix is attempting to restructure viewing habits from their open platform ideal to a schedule 'window' where relevancy is still key. Its a sly move to gain users who would otherwise be too lazy to try and find links online every Monday a new episode appears. Here's hoping that if its a success we'll be seeing more and more of our favourite American shows be available a lot quicker than looking at a boxset pre-order online.
