Binge yourself out: impact of binge watching on subscription of video on demand

We analyze the outcomes of a field experiment where random households were gifted a subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) product like Netflix to study the impact of binge watching on consumers behavior and content distribution strategies. We find that households induced to binge watch TV Shows during the experiment were less likely to continue paying for SVoD after the experiment, despite enjoying their viewing experience more than other households that did not binge watch. Our results suggest that consumers who binge watch turn over content faster, which depreciates the value they associate with subscription video-on-demand and may thus triggers churn. However, we also show that regular and cost effective reminders of content that households are likely to enjoy and that they have not consumed before, delays this perception and keeps households willing to pay for subscription video-on-demand for longer periods of time.