Netflix not ideal for married couples: study

It can cause way more than just the no-sleep agreement

As you sit through the night to binge watch Sacred Games Season 2 on Netflix, the no-sleep agreement with your wife may not be enough for you both to enjoy the show without fights. New research from Lancaster University of Warwick and Relational Economics Ltd suggests that streaming and subscription TV providers like Netflix need to consider several factors to ensure their services provide value to their customers.

"Firms need to think about how they can facilitate collaboration among families in their use of subscription TV. For example, there is the potential to use technologies such as Alexa to identify areas of value destruction and to intervene – for instance, by detecting when one person regularly talks during a certain programme and setting up a recording, so nothing is missed," said Helen Bruce from Lancaster University. Netflix recently introduced a binge watching contract for couples and families to regulate the way they watch TV together.

PHOTO: AFP

The contract offers five rules that binge watch partners have to sign on with Netflix. These include: I won't fall asleep; I won't get distracted by my phone causing the other person to rewind because I missed something; I won't continue watching a show without the other person present; I won't talk whilst the show is on and in the event that I come across a spoiler, I won't share it with the other person.

"From our research, we found families value more than just watching TV together, though the ability to do so and to customise those experiences remains extremely important and a key reason why families continue to spend often significant sums of money each month on TV subscriptions," explained Bruce.

The Netflix logo is shown in this illustration photograph in Encinitas, California, US, on October 14, 2014.PHOTO: REUTERS

House values can be destroyed where the actions of one family member are detrimental to others. "For instance, a person might disrupt family viewing by talking loudly, delete recorded shows that someone else wanted to watch, or make disparaging comments about another party's tastes in TV shows," the findings showed.

Streaming service providers need to provide resources that are easily integrated into consumers' lives, as well as providing reliability and quality. "They also need to respond to common problems, where patterns of behaviour which cause difficulties and thus, a loss of value are repeated across users,” Bruce concluded.

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