“Stranger Things” fans who waited almost three years for Season 4 might have been mildly irritated to discover that, after rapidly consuming seven extra-long episodes in succession, everything came to an abrupt stop. The season is now on a brief hiatus until July 1, when the rest of the S4 episodes will be available. This is what has become known as a “mid-season break,” and it’s a model that broadcasters and streamers are more frequently adopting for their most popular shows.
From “Breaking Bad” to “Ozark” and “Better Call Saul,” mid-season breathers have been typically applied to shows that are coming toward the end of their run, especially when there are more episodes than in previous seasons. Even so, for fans who have invested dozens of hours in a tale already, such breaks can be frustrating.
Still, while Netflix has had some mid-season breaks, it traditionally distributes seasons all at once, allowing subscribers to watch at leisure. And, according to Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s head of scripted shows for the U.S. and Canada, that’s a strategy that will continue into the future.
“We fundamentally believe that we want to give our members the choice in how they view,” said Friedlander at a Hollywood Radio Television Society gathering this week. “And so giving them that option on these scripted series to watch as much as they want to watch when they watch it, is still fundamental to what we want to provide. And so when you see something like a batched season with Stranger Things, this is our attempt at making sure we can get shows out quicker to the members.”
When asked about Netflix’s approach to mid-season breaks for some of its shows, Friedlander noted, “We have had some experimentation in that space. But it’s also, you’re giving multiple-episodic-viewing experiences, it isn’t a standalone. So it really does, what we think, honors our relationship with our members and what their expectations are. There have been other types of launch cadences, but that’s connected to an unscripted approach or a competition approach.”
It’s of note that rival services Disney+ and HBO Max have not typically introduced mid-season breaks for their scripted dramas, but they tend to release episodes on a weekly schedule. This means those that want to binge a show have to wait until the end of a season. Many onlookers believe that in the age of streaming, doling out episodes one at a time is the more solid strategy as a way to retain customers who might only be subscribing for certain series.
The binge model allows viewers to more easily “churn and return” when there are specific shows that they want to watch. That means that when a series drops its entire season, customers can come back to the service, watch it, and then unsubscribe until something else is released that interests them. While the same can be done by waiting until a weekly series airs its final episode, streamers bank on the excitement and buzz of a show’s initial premiere to hook subscribers early on.
While it seems that mid-season breaks will not be going away anytime soon, it’s perhaps comforting for Netflix subscribers to know that the day-one binge-watch will continue for the foreseeable future, whether that is because it allows them to watch at their own pace, or because it will let them unsubscribe when they finish the season.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.