The rise of streaming services is increasing the length of TV episodes

On linear or cable television, scheduling required broadcasters to fit episodes into a 30- or 60-minute time slot with commercials. The rise of streaming services means that this need no longer exists, which means that television episodes are becoming longer and longer.

One reason for this is that the advertising industry is shrinking. As production costs rise, agencies do not receive the necessary funds, which leads to a deterioration in the quality of their products. With the rise of retail and social media advertising, companies have begun to move away from advertising on cable television.

The cost of advertising is becoming increasingly lower on streaming sites because there are no “prime time” spots on these streaming services. Viewers can now watch TV whenever they want.

Advertising is also more focused on streaming services as it is shown to the target audience at a time. Companies can take up this idea and use it to defend their smaller production budgets.

Newer television shows are now longer than previous years and vary in length. The Netflix drama “Inventing Anna” has episode lengths between 60 and 82 minutes. The Disney+ series “The Book of Boba Fett” has episodes ranging from 39 to 61 minutes in length. Each episode of Stranger Things season 4 was over an hour long, with the finale lasting 2 hours and 22 minutes.

“Hacks” storyteller and co-executive producer Paul W. Downs said the length has an advantage.

He told Variety that the length “gives us room for stories that might otherwise have been very short.”

Episodes longer than the classic 30-minute length struggle to hold viewers’ attention, so TV makers have started finding ways around this. The easiest way is to adapt storylines using methods such as cliffhangers to capture the viewer’s attention.

Another method is holding episodes back for release at different times. It allows streaming services to replicate the linear TV method of releasing an episode weekly, keeping people interested in the next episode.

Long episodes are becoming the norm on television and streaming services have given television more flexibility in their creation. However, some people don’t believe it’s for the better.

Gareth Neame, the showrunner of The Gilded Age, spoke to Variety about the rhythm of producing a TV show.

“There’s a part of me that really likes the discipline,” Neame said. “They know that every scene that’s left in the cut really deserves its place. Even if you’ve been cramming something the entire time, we have an idea of ​​how long an episode should last. When you start walking for half an hour longer it feels a bit confusing. There’s a natural length to an episode that we’ve all been trained to watch.”

As episode lengths continue to grow, seasons on television are shrinking. Television show production costs are rising, causing networks to reduce the number of episodes released per season. Even if the episodes are longer, production companies can still tell the same length of story at a lower cost.

The Hollywood writers’ strike of 2023 was caused by and led to cheaper production of television. Before the strike, writers were forced to “break stories,” or break down seasons and structure them.

Because of this definition of the work, authors were only allowed to be paid the union minimum and were not retained for very long. Some writers felt like they could do the same amount of work for less pay and faster.

During and after the strike, broadcasters no longer chose to find cheaper ways to produce television. Instead, companies were forced to develop these products, resulting in longer episodes and shorter, cheaper seasons.

While longer episodes and shorter seasons on television may not be exciting for everyone, it is the future of television. Broadcasters and production companies are trying to figure out how best to keep audiences interested while still paying workers well. However, no one knows what the television industry will look like in the future.

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