A lively report from Bloomberg citing Netflix data suggests that viewers are increasingly abandoning popular shows before the second season. The likely reasons aren’t hard to guess: Netflix frequently cancels shows, there’s too long a wait between seasons, and much of Netflix’s content is designed for an algorithm rather than art.

But the data also points to a change in the way people consume entertainment. Netflix’s defining innovation, binge-watching, was created for an era when streaming competed with traditional television. Today, Netflix competes with TikTok, YouTube, Reels, and several microdrama apps. That change makes Netflix’s binge model seem like an antiquated relic from another era.

Binge watching helped Netflix beat TV

When Netflix first released a full season of “House of Cards” in February 2013, it was a revelation.
Ad-free, Internet-connected television meant we could break free from the traditional routine of once-a-week shows peppered with commercials. Instead, binge-watching meant that viewers could be entertained for hours on end, quickly forming a bond with the titles and their characters that would otherwise have taken years to develop. Plus, you can watch them at any time, not just on the day the network decided to air them, as is the case with linear television.

This way of seeing made sense in a world where Netflix was still largely competing with traditional television like streaming, cable, and satellite. But Netflix won that fight. Nielsen announced in June 2025 that the television era reached a new milestone, when the Netflix-style streaming format eclipsed streaming and cable viewing for the first time, a milestone that made clear that Netflix’s original competition was no longer the threat.

Now Netflix’s competition is not the television of yesteryear, but what has become today’s television: video applications.

TikTok and YouTube are today’s threats

Thanks to the rise of TikTok, Reels, and other short-form video platforms, there’s no need to visit Netflix when you have a couple of hours to kill with mindless entertainment. Instead, there is an endless, free supply of videos you can turn to.

According to eMarketer analysts, TikTok was already closing in on Netflix in terms of time spent in 2024, when American adults spent an average of 62.1 minutes per day streaming from Netflix and 58.4 minutes per day on TikTok. In 2024, the Financial Times reported that globally, TikTok users spent an average of 95 minutes per day on the app, the highest engagement rate among major social networks.

Then there’s YouTube, which offers a mix of both short and long-form content. According to a report published this year by Digital i, YouTube surpassed Netflix in average daily viewing for the first time, with 99.1 minutes per day in 2025, compared to Netflix’s 93.4 minutes.

These market reports use different methodologies and demographics, so they should be taken with a grain of salt, but directionally they point in the same direction. YouTube and apps like TikTok are Netflix’s real competition, not television.

Netflix even acknowledged this existential threat through a product redesign in April that added a TikTok-like feed based on Netflix content.

Where Netflix goes wrong is that it still presents itself as a way to help you find something to watch, rather than being what you watch. It’s understandable why Netflix went this route, given its library, but it’s not necessarily what the end user wants. Today, many people with dopamine-depleted attention spans turn to microdrama apps in increasing numbers when they want a serialized story they can consume in minutes.

According to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures, one of the leading microdrama apps, ReelShort, recorded approximately $1.2 billion in gross consumer spending in 2025, up 119% from 2024, TechCrunch’s Amanda Silberling previously reported. Meanwhile, another leading app, DramaBox, generated $276 million in gross consumer spending last year, more than double its 2024 figures. Even TikTok recognized the competition and launched its own microdrama app to test the market’s appetite for this type of content.

Where does Netflix go from here?

Where does that leave Netflix, whose claim to fame has been removing entire seasons at a time for quick consumption?

You will probably have to rethink how you greenlight, produce and launch what you consider a “TV show.”

That doesn’t mean Netflix’s model has to pivot completely toward short format to keep up with the competition, but it may need to reconsider how people want to stream. Viewers may no longer want to put in the hours and weeks required to watch a show and all of its subsequent seasons, for example. They want something that feels more “watchable,” in the same way that a YouTube video or TikTok series from a creator can easily be watched.

A simple solution could see Netflix try to prioritize single-season shows, traditionally known as miniseries or limited series, allowing people to tune into a finished work without having to worry if it would end on a cliffhanger and never be renewed.

Netflix could also experiment with breaking shows into smaller chunks, like the before-its-time Quibi model.

Quibi, the startup backed by Jeffrey Katzenberg, had bet that people would eventually gravitate toward TV content designed to be consumed in shorter sessions. Unfortunately for Quibi, the pandemic hit and people suddenly had a lot of time to watch TV, causing its demise.

Many Netflix shows could easily be renewed for shorter viewing sessions, particularly light competition shows like “Nailed It,” “Is It Cake?” or “Squid Game: The Challenge.” Meanwhile, Netflix could surely produce better microdramas than those currently on the market with their horrible acting and ridiculous storylines.

To generate interest in its higher quality content, some Netflix shows could move to the weekly release model. This is something that Netflix has already proven to work in specific cases. For example, he releases new episodes of his reality show “Love Is Blind” in weekly downloads, which makes for great water cooler material as everyone watches the new episodes at around the same time. (Faster consumption models could also work. For example, Peacock’s “Love Island USA” is the reality show of the summer, since there is a new episode almost daily.)

But instead of experimenting with different types of short-form content for quick entertainment, combined with slower releases over seasons, or focusing more on miniseries worth watching, Netflix has been dabbling in other areas.

Lately, it has expanded its lineup with podcasts, which no one is supposedly watching, and live content, which can be unpredictable. In terms of the latter, Netflix’s investments in live sports have generally done well, but its recent entry into live competition reality shows, “Star Search,” has already been canceled despite a clever real-time voting feature. More work is still needed here.

The Bloomberg report framed the problem facing Netflix as an inability to create loyal TV viewers who will tune in for a Season 2, but the underlying problem facing the streamer is much bigger. Netflix may need to rethink whether it still needs to focus on competing with traditional television and its long-running shows, or whether it should focus on entertainment projects whose narrative arcs have less filler and end more quickly.

To find the right balance between viewers abandoning cable and those who simply want something better than TikTok, Netflix is ​​finding it necessary to reinvent television once again.