For the past eight weeks, waking up on Friday morning has come with a bet for many Star Wars fans: check out Twitter for the latest headlines or watch the new Mandalorian episode before anyone has a chance to ruin it?
This week ‘s episode of Mandalorianul is a perfect example. The end of the second season includes some moments that the trend labels of Twitter and the “news for you”, the curated topic, are already destroying. Without entering the territory of the spoiler here (and use this as a warning to avoid Twitter if you have not seen the final yet), one of the proposed solutions to this problem seems simple: launch the episodes later. Instead of giving up episodes at 3AM ET, why not pivot at 8 or 9PM ET, similar to how Game of Thrones did he use his 21:00 slot on sunday?
It’s complicated and it’s important to remember that the desire to change the length of time episodes comes largely from a US audience. There are a few key factors to keep in mind here that have not had an impact Game of Thrones as much:
- Disney Plus is a global streaming service that launches its originals at the same time in each region
- Mandalorianul is a family show, enjoyed by both children and adults
- Having episodes early on Friday gives people the weekend to enjoy if they don’t care about spoilers
Game of Thrones did not face many of these problems. HBO is still a primarily domestic service, with episodes aired internationally through other carriers (such as Sky in the UK) the next day. HBO can focus on its American audience, because that’s where most of its customers are. Disney can’t. About 25% of the total Disney Plus subscriber base is registered through Hotstar in India, and the company is quickly launching the streamer in other large regions, such as Latin America. Although the US is still a major market, it is not the only area that Disney needs to focus on. And 21:00 ET on Sunday is too late or too early for a number of other countries.
In contrast to the Mandalorianul, Game of Thrones It is also not a family show. Sure, families could watch it together, but it’s probably not the kind of series that parents stay with their seven-year-old to watch. Mandalorianul is a show that families with young children watch together – Baby Yoda is more than just a device – and 21:00 ET is too late. This appeared in The VergeToday is weak, when I was complaining that I wake up at 6:30 AM to watch the episode before starting work, which requires Twitter. 9AM ET is great for the UK crowd (5pm), but it’s still early and it’s even earlier for the west coast of the US. Although it seemed that 7 or 8 PM ET would be a good compromise, that means it’s 16:00 PT for the West Coast crowd (a little early on Friday) and midnight for the people of the UK. Better one that I prefer, but not perfect.
Then there is the most obvious point: not everyone who follows Mandalorianul start your days with Twitter or Instagram or TikTok. He may not even see the spoilers – or probably don’t care. What a happy life! For those Mandalorian fans, for the episode to fall early on Friday, give them Friday night and the entire weekend to watch whenever they want. This question – “What is the best time to launch us Mandalorian episodes? ”- does not apply to them, really, because they are not bothered by spoilers.
There is a good time to launch new ones Mandalorian episodes? Depending on who you ask and where they live, the answer varies – but why people don’t ask for episodes at some point. Fans want that feeling of watching the match. It’s a phrase I used last time Game of Thrones and breaking bad before. It is the anticipation of a new episode (Mandalorian certainly this) and making sure you are in front of a TV, laptop or phone right when the episode starts.
By the end of the episode, Twitter is full of jokes and gasps, depending on what was played in the last minutes. Friends who gathered for party watches jump. Memes are starting to spread. Watching a big show feels more like a communal adventure than a solitary activity – something I really needed this year. People want Mandalorianul sooner or later because they want to experience it with the world.
Mandalorianul is the biggest TV event of the year. It is the thing that circulates every Friday and we ask our friends to hurry up and finish watching because we want to talk about it. People wake up at different times, are busy with children in the morning or have any other priorities which means they cannot sit and watch. Mandalorianul at 6 or 7 in the morning.
It’s almost impossible to find a perfect moment that works for everyone, so it launches episodes at midnight PT do what make the most sense, especially in a dominant streaming world, where preference and choice define the viewing experience. It just sucks for an event-type show to be so big Mandalorian I can’t really create the same beautiful shared viewing experience at the meeting Game of Thrones provided. I anticipate that it will be an issue that we will see growing as the main streamers expand globally. Think Mandalorian and Stranger Things, but again and again.