{"id":505503,"date":"2026-05-27T17:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505503\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T17:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T17:41:08","slug":"the-wait-between-seasons-of-tv-is-getting-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/505503\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wait Between Seasons of TV Is Getting Longer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s been a two-year wait for the upcoming third season of HBO\u2019s House of the Dragon. The second season of Apple TV+\u2019s Severance<\/a> was a three-year wait, as was the final season of Netflix\u2019s Stranger Things<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tAt this point, waiting years for a new season isn\u2019t at all unusual. <\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to a new study by Ampere Analysis<\/a>, the average wait between seasons of TV shows on major streaming platforms has reached what is almost certainly an all-time high. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe study reports the gap has gradually doubled over the last decade \u2014 from an average of 10 months in 2016 to 16 months in 2021 to 21 months in 2024 and 2025. Prior to 2016, shows taking less than a year to return were the industry norm. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat said, a show taking a long time to return doesn\u2019t necessarily reduce interest. In fact, shows that took more than 30 months between seasons (such as Netflix\u2019s Wednesday) had the highest viewer engagement. <\/p>\n

\n\tUnsurprisingly, sci-fi and fantasy titles that require considerable VFX work tend to be the shows that have the longest waits. Since HBO\u2019s Game of Thrones<\/a>, streamers have invested heavily in cinematic event shows that can break through the clutter amid an average of 600 scripted shows a year. Such shows tend to require a longer production schedule (yet Thrones, many forget, managed to regularly churn out a new season annually until its seventh-and-final season, which took two years). <\/p>\n

\n\tSuch gaps come with some risk \u2014 54 percent of the study\u2019s respondents said they would be likely to cancel a service subscription due to long waits for engaging content. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMany original shows build highly dedicated audiences that remain loyal despite increasingly long waits between seasons,\u201d said Christen Tamisin, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis. \u201cHowever, streamers need to balance blockbuster production timelines against a steady flow of content. Extended gaps may generate anticipation around flagship titles, but they can also encourage audiences to cancel subscriptions and return only when major shows are back on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat risk is likely higher when courting younger viewers. Recently, another study<\/a> by Dentsu and IGN Entertainment showed that more than half of Gen Z users said they will cancel and renew streaming services to \u201cchase a single title\u201d rather than just buy and hold a subscription service. The study claimed \u201cplatform loyalty is effectively dead.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a two-year wait for the upcoming third season of HBO\u2019s House of the Dragon. The second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,1440,19,17,46163,27613,128],"class_list":["post-505503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-severance","tag-stranger-things","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116647774642601826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}