By Mary Lynne Detoni-Hill, Nova Filmhouse Staff
With the popularity of sites like Netflix and Hulu, not only the format of how we are getting our content has changed but also the way in which we watch this content has changed. Both Netflix and Hulu have complete television series available for immediate consumption which has given birth to the new trend of binge watching. On these sites, when watching a series, the next episode starts immediately after the previous one. The viewer doesn’t even need to click on the screen; the new episode simply starts. Binge watching occurs when the viewer watches multiple episodes of a show in one sitting.
In some respects, binge watching is very 
good not only for online sites but also for television shows still on the air. When the hit AMC show, Breaking Bad first aired, the ratings weren’t great and even the fourth season finale only had 1.9 million viewers. The season five (and series) finale brought in an astonishing 10.3 million viewers. These ratings jumps so late in a show’s run are extremely rare. Breaking Bad is available on Netflix and slowly grew in popularity as people discovered it. Even between the fourth and fifth seasons, people were able to binge watch the almost 50 episodes on Netflix and then they were ready and excited to watch the final season on AMC. The ability to binge watch and catch up to where the show currently is, brings people back to the original television network.
In 1938 the US Supreme Court ruled that the major studios held a monopoly and issued an antitrust action in United States vs. Paramount Pictures. Two years later the majors agreed to stop buying theaters and eliminate blind blocking (which required theaters to show a film without seeing it first.) However, four years later, the majors still held a monopoly. Another antitrust action addressed the five majors who responded by divesting themselves of all theaters. The majors were no longer exhibitors (theater owners). This created a huge problem because the big banks (who had previously financed the majors’ productions) were reluctant to finance their future films. This led to the majors’ decision to leave the production of films to independent studios. 
Hollywood’s origin can be traced back to 1890 when Edison invented the first motion picture camera, a peephole viewing machine that he called “kinetoscope.” Originally, silent short films were placed into Vaudevilles (theatrical shows made up of live entertainment such as musicians, plays, and magicians), as fillers between the acts. The owners of Vaudeville did not expect films to be successful, but to their surprise the audiences demanded more movies! That was a major encouragement for the nascent industry. Soon, small studios popped up all over the world, as did “Nickel” motion picture houses. Attendance exceeded 2 million people a week in the US. 
Here’s the thing: in these busy times, sometimes even an hour and twenty minutes is too long. And another thing yet: I don’t want to waste my precious and limited entertainment time on anything but the highest quality content. I need great content and content that I can squeeze into a lunch break.