• by Wayne Friedman , July 19, 2016

More viewers have been binge watching on TV in the last few months. Now 57% of TV viewers report regular binge viewing in the last 10 months -- up 12%, GfK MRI Research says.

GfK MRI research characterizes “binge viewing” as TV viewers who regularly watched three or more episodes of the same show in one sitting — from streaming, time-shifted viewing/DVR, video-on-demand or scheduled TV marathons.

The survey says regular binge viewing includes 14% who “usually” binge all or most of the time, 18% who “frequently” binge more than half the time, and 25% who “sometimes” binge about half the time.

How do viewers feel about binging? Pretty good.

Some 73% of regular bingers report having a positive view of their binging; 77% say it is “so fun to binge watch, I have a hard time stopping”, and 48% feel that binge viewing keeps them “up to date/in the know.”

Data shows all this binge viewing is good for TV networks looking to get viewers to sample new shows: 41% of regular bingers say TV shows “they have never seen” occupy most of their binge viewing time, compared to 35% for “old favorite” programs. Farther down the list: Original shows from new streaming services -- only 22% do this binging.

Demographically, Millennials maintain their top spot among bingers, with 53% saying that they are regular bingers.

Not surprisingly, streaming services are the main conduits for binge viewing. Streaming services are the most active platforms to binge -- 66%. For millennials is number is 81%.