TORONTO – Twenty-seven percent of Netflix subscribers in Canada watched at least one episode of the on demand viewing company’s original series House of Cards within the first 27 days of the show’s release, according to new research from Toronto-based Solutions Research Group (SRG).
While there has been much made of “binge-viewing” and a possible paradigm shift where consumers want to watch all episodes of certain series’ in one or a few sittings, SRG set about to find out if all those viewers actually binge-viewed.
Some did, but many are watching at their own pace, according to the research. One-in-three (30%) House of Cards viewers watched all 13 episodes in less than four weeks of its release, 34% watched 4-12 episodes so far and 35% are just started, watching three episodes or less. The average number of episodes consumed among House of Cards viewers since release was 7.1, suggesting that when left to make their own scheduling decisions, viewers consumed about two episodes per week.
Binge viewing was significantly more prevalent in the 18-34 demographic – the new generation of TV viewers. Among viewers of House of Cards in the adult 18-34 demo, 40% already watched all 13 episodes. Among viewers 35-plus, only 18% finished watching all the episodes. Average number of episodes viewed so far was 7.9 in the 18-34 demo vs. 6.1 among 35-plus viewers.
Another factor was presence of children in the home. Among House of Cards fans who are singles/couples without kids, 36% watched all episodes already but in family households with kids under 12 in the home, only 22% were able to, says the SRG release.
The research also found that the total audience for House of Cards could double over the long term. In addition to the 27% of Netflix subscribers who have started watching, another 34% said they have heard about the show and would like to watch in the future.
The research was conducted online as part of a national Omni study of 1,200 online Canadians between February 28-March 1, 2013 by Solutions Research Group (SRG).
