(Press-News.org) The market for video-on-demand platforms has grown rapidly in the last decade, with nearly 90% of U.S. households subscribing to a service, and most subscribers having four or more platforms. In this context, and as more than a third of U.S. subscribers cancel their subscriptions within short periods, retaining subscribers and maximizing engagement have become crucial to the industry.
In a new study, researchers examined how the release strategy of shows—gradually or all at once—influences users’ engagement and subscription rates at a video-on-demand platform. The study found that each approach has its merits, but that gradually releasing shows boosts consumers’ searches, triggering substantially higher subscription rates.
The study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and the University of Texas. It is published in Marketing Science.
“Although releasing all episodes at once attracts more consumers to the platform when shows premiere, a gradual release schedule fosters more engagement with the platform and exploration of the platform’s content,” explains Pedro Ferreira, professor of information systems at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, who coauthored the study.
In 2013, Netflix disrupted the television industry by releasing all episodes of the first season of House of Cards simultaneously, sparking a widespread trend of releasing entire seasons of TV shows at once. But by 2022, gradual-release schedules had regained popularity. In this study, researchers partnered with a large multinational telecommunications company to implement a randomized field trial in which users were exposed to either a gradual-release schedule or an all-at-once release schedule.
The study featured two five-week segments, manipulating the release schedule of four popular TV shows (Big Little Lies, The Muppets, The Young Pope, and Unforgettable). Sixty thousand study participants (with an average age of 49) were randomly divided into the two stages: In the first stage, content was released gradually; in the second stage, all content was available immediately. Participants received different weekly text messages notifying them about the shows available.
Each release strategy had its own merits, the study concluded. Participants in the gradual-release group were 48% more likely to continue using the program than were participants in the all-at-once release group. The effectiveness of each release strategy depended on the viewing preferences of consumers. Although most users benefited from the gradual-release schedule, its impact diminished for extreme binge watchers.
Moreover, participants in the gradual-release group were 1.7% more likely to continue their subscriptions than were participants in the all-at-once release group. Again, gradual releases lowered subscription retention among users with strong binge-watching behaviors.
Platforms can retain subscribers using a gradual-release strategy for exclusive content, suggest the authors. This strategy encourages more visits to the platform as users return to watch new episodes. During their visits, subscribers may discover new content that they enjoy, leading them to visit after watching the exclusive content that initially brought them to the platform. By visiting the platform more frequently, subscribers are also exposed to more recommendations, which can drive further engagement.
“Our findings highlight the importance of release strategies as a lever for content distributors who want to maximize platform success,” says Miguel Godinho de Matos, professor of information systems and management at Universidade Católica Portuguesa, who coauthored the study.
“They also help explain why content distributors are returning to gradual-release schedules, diverging from the all-at-once strategy popularized by Netflix in 2013,” adds Samir Mamadehussene, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas’s Naveen Jindal School of Management, who coauthored the study.
Among the study’s limitations, the authors note that they evaluated consumers’ engagement and subscription behavior over a relatively short period, which restricted their ability to predict the sustained effects of the gradual-release strategy. In addition, the study was carried out with just one streaming platform.
The study was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and by Carnegie Mellon’s Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics, which receives unrestricted (gift) funding from the Motion Picture Association of America, and the industry partner that provided the data to support this research.
END
For video-on-demand platforms, release strategy matters: streaming episodes gradually boosts consumers’ searches, subscription rates
2025-09-08
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Sleep strengthens muscle and bone by boosting growth hormone levels. Here's how
2025-09-08
As every bodybuilder knows, a deep, restful sleep boosts levels of growth hormone to build strong muscle and bone and burn fat. And as every teenager should know, they won't reach their full height potential without adequate growth hormone from a full night's sleep.
But why lack of sleep — in particular the early, deep phase called non-REM sleep — lowers levels of growth hormone has been a mystery.
In a study published in the current issue of the journal Cell, researchers from University ...
Only 1 in 7 online health images show proper technique to accurately measure blood pressure
2025-09-08
Research Highlights:
Only 1 in 7 online stock images of blood pressure monitoring aligned with the procedures recommended by clinical guidelines.
Online stock images depicting blood pressure monitoring in the home were approximately three times more accurate than images depicting blood pressure monitoring in a physician’s office, health care facility or hospital.
This study is among the first to review online images of people having their blood pressure measured from major stock photo websites.
Embargoed until 2 p.m. CT/3 p.m. ET Monday, ...
Children receiving biofeedback speech therapy improved faster than with traditional methods
2025-09-08
Run. Red. World. Pronouncing the “r” sound in these words requires precise control of the tongue. For most children, this happens naturally, but many children struggle with residual speech sound disorder (RSSD) in which speech errors persist past the age of eight.
In a large-scale study, researchers in speech pathology tested a promising treatment approach that incorporates biofeedback—a method that uses technology to provide visual feedback to improve speech. They found that children’s ability to say the “r” sound improved at a ...
Scientists discover why the flu is more deadly for older people
2025-09-08
Scientists have discovered why older people are more likely to suffer severely from the flu, and can now use their findings to address this risk.
In a new study, which is published in PNAS, experts discovered that older people produce a glycosylated protein called apoplipoprotein D (ApoD), which is involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation, at much higher levels than in younger people. This has the effect of reducing the patient’s ability to resist virus infection, resulting in a more serious disease outcome.
The team established that highly elevated ApoD production ...
The salmon superfood you’ve never heard of
2025-09-08
In northern California, salmon are more than just fish—they’re a cornerstone of tribal traditions, a driver of tourism and a sign of healthy rivers. So it may not come as a surprise that NAU and University of California Berkeley scientists working along the region’s Eel River have discovered a micro-scale nutrient factory that keeps rivers healthy and allows salmon to thrive.
The scientists’ new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals how a partnership ...
How does chemotherapy disrupt circadian rhythms?
2025-09-08
During and after chemotherapy, nearly half of cancer patients endure circadian rhythm disruptions, which worsens treatment side effects. Because the body’s primary rhythm pacemaker is in the brain, this suggests that perhaps chemotherapeutics target the brain to disrupt circadian rhythms. However, research shows that cancer treatments do not penetrate the brain well. To shed light on this discrepancy, researchers led by Leah Pyter at Ohio State University explored whether paclitaxel, a frequently used breast cancer treatment, disrupts the biological clock in the brain to impair circadian rhythms.
In their eNeuro paper, the researchers used a paclitaxel treatment regimen ...
A new bystander effect? Aggression can be contagious when observing it in peers.
2025-09-08
People who repeatedly observe aggression have a higher likelihood of engaging in violent behavior later in life. In a new JNeurosci paper, Jacob Nordman and colleagues, from Southern University of Illinois School of Medicine, used mice to explore the environmental factors and neural mechanisms that lead to the aggression that witnesses later acquire.
In a behavioral paradigm created by this research group, mice observed known peers or unfamiliar strangers attack intruder mice. Only male witnesses later displayed increased aggression themselves, and this happened only after watching familiar peers attack intruders.
What neural mechanism might be driving ...
Do you see what I see? People share brain responses for colors.
2025-09-08
Do colors trigger unique brain responses? And do different people have the same brain responses to colors? In a new JNeurosci paper, Michael Bannert and Andreas Bartels, from the University of Tübingen, explored color representation in the human brain to address these questions.
The researchers measured color-induced brain responses from one set of participants. Next, they predicted what colors other participants were observing by comparing each individual’s brain activity to color-induced responses of the first set of observers. Bannert and Bartels found that ...
Blood test could streamline early Alzheimer's detection
2025-09-08
In a landmark study of Hispanic and Latino adults, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a link between self-reported cognitive decline and blood-based biomarkers, which could pave the way for a simple blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. This approach could be faster, less-invasive and more affordable than existing screening tools. The results are published in JAMA Network Open.
“We need ways to identify underlying neurodegenerative ...
New and simple detection method for nanoplastics.
2025-09-08
A joint team from the University of Stuttgart in Germany and the University of Melbourne in Australia has developed a new method for the straightforward analysis of tiny nanoplastic particles in environmental samples. One needs only an ordinary optical microscope and a newly developed test strip—the optical sieve. The research results have now been published in “Nature Photonics” (doi: 10.1038/s41566-025-01733-x).
“The test strip can serve as a simple analysis tool in environmental and health research,” explains Prof. ...