Audio Video News

Once a year, House of Cards fans cancel all social obligations and hole up to bingewatch the new season of the Netflix original series in an evening or two or three. Other networks want a piece of that action.

Comcast-owned NBC started catering to binge viewers in 2015 by releasing 13 episodes of Aquarius after airing the season premiere. Disney/ABC-owned pay-TV channel Freeform made available all 10 episodes of the sci-fi series Beyond this past January and started production on its second season almost immediately.

And the BBC recently announced plans to make major series available on its iPlayer streaming service before they appear on broadcast or pay-TV. Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, forbade the Beeb from pooling resources with other major British broadcasters to form a common streaming platform in 2009. If that had not happened, the U.K. might already have its own popular equivalent of Netflix.