Binge viewing is transforming the way people watch television and changing the economics of the industry….Now, technologies such as on-demand video and digital video recorders are giving rise to the binge viewer, who devours shows in quick succession—episode after episode, season after season, perhaps for $7.99 a month, the cost of a basic Netflix membership.

Whereas those who missed out on what all the initial fuss was about with Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones…, and Dexter are able to catch up with past seasons on DVD—an immersion course of binge viewing—and bring themselves up to speed in time for the next season’s debut, fully conversant with the workings of Walt’s woefully understaffed meth lab, say, or the latest trend lines in zombie migration.

The PVR allows you to pause live TV, record programmes with a simple touch of a button, watch the start of a programme you've selected even while the end is still being recorded, and assemble every episode of Coronation Street or The Simpsons in a week, or a whole series of 24, no matter which channel they are transmitted on, for binge viewing sessions.