Remember questioning how you would survive a whole week of waiting to watch another episode of your favorite show? Although the weekly episode release model is not entirely gone, streaming has heavily changed television entertainment.
TV shows used to be featured primarily through live TV and cable; however, streaming services have become the main form of television and entertainment, with a usage increase of 71%, according to Nielsen. This change has affected TV watching as a whole, as streaming services lean toward the subscription and ad revenue business model rather than needing to hold onto a time slot on live TV, according to Nielsen.
As streaming services become the more common and popular form of TV entertainment, we are also seeing live events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics become a part of the streaming service model. This extends beyond original and catalog content, too, with sporting events like Super Bowl LIX on FOX and Tubi, and the 2026 Olympics being on NBC and Peacock. This inclusion has made streaming services even more popular in comparison to other forms of entertainment like live TV and cable.
Platforms like YouTube have also been a major part of this change to streaming services throughout the years. According to Nielsen, YouTube (excluding YouTube TV) has had a steady, significant growth of 120% since 2021, and YouTube had 12.5% of all television views in May across other streaming platforms, as well as live and cable TV. This was its fourth consecutive monthly increase and highest share of TV views for any streaming platform, according to Nielsen.
This growth and pivot toward “free” entertainment has also given streaming services a new form of revenue aside from subscriptions: advertisements. Similar to live TV and cable, ads are a major form of streaming services’ revenue and income, according to The Current. Platforms like Netflix even have subscription tiers for viewers to be able to remove ads or keep the cheaper tier with unskippable ads included.
The other aspect of TV entertainment that streaming has affected is the length of their shows’ seasons and the way they release them. TV series used to have longer seasons, typically ranging from 20 to 24 episodes to fit the schedules of network television, according to Parrot Analytics. Recently, this trend has changed to seasons with fewer episodes. In addition, streaming platforms tend to release episodes all at once instead of weekly. This shift reflects changes in audience expectations, viewership patterns and network strategies.
This development has even changed the way networks release TV shows’ seasons regarding season length. Based on Parrot Analytics, the average number of episodes per season for networks went from 15.4 in 2018 to 10.2 in 2023. In the same year, the average for streaming moved to 9.6 episodes per season. This change is a telltale sign of the transformation in viewers’ preferences, with viewers seeming to prefer a more compact and tightly-knit story and series. According to Parrot Analytics, streaming is adapting to storylines and screenplays that will hold people’s attention until the show’s conclusion by using cliffhangers and other writing techniques to keep viewers looking to the next episode.
Overall, streaming has changed the way people consume TV entertainment. It has affected show design, advertisement models, and network strategies.
