Netflix's New Speed-Binge Feature Is Facing Some Serious Hollywood Backlash

Netflix is testing a feature that allows viewers to speed up shows and films while still allowing them to hear the audio.

Let's be honest, there is more content out there right now than one person could ever consume. Whether it be albums, podcasts, TV shows, movies, there is so much to listen to and see that people simply don't have enough hours in the day to do it all. But what if we miss something? What if we are dedicating all of our free time to one TV series when we would actually enjoy another more but never know about it?

In the podcast world, there is a way to remedy that somewhat. Most podcast apps will allow listeners to play episodes at double speed. The hosts and their guests might sound squeaky and rushed, but it allows people to listen to the same number of podcasts in half the amount of time. Pretty handy for those of us who have an ever-increasing library of podcasts to get through every week.

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Turns out Netflix likes the idea so much that it is trialing it with movies and TV shows. Android Police first discovered the feature on Netflix for Android devices. The option to slow down what users are watching to 0.5x or 0.75x, or speed it up to 1.25x or 1.5x. Netflix might like the idea of users being able to speed through its content, but the content's creators appear to be dead against the idea.

Directors from across the industry have been speaking out against the feature, claiming that it will do even more damage to cinema than has already been done. "Why support & finance filmmakers visions on one hand and then work to destroy the presentation of those films on the other?" tweeted The Incredibles director, Brad Bird. Anchorman creator Judd Apatow also chipped in, promising to call every director and content creator in the world if he has to in order to stop this from being rolled out permanently.

For the person who feels as if they are constantly missing out on movies and TV shows as they simply don't have enough time, this might seem like the perfect solution. For the people making the movies and TV shows, timing will have been a massive part of putting together their work. In their eyes, speeding through it would mean consuming what they made in the completely wrong way, and they might have a point.

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