A marathon or watchalong is an event in which viewers or readers engage many hours' worth of media (film, television, books, YouTube videos etc.)
This phrase represents a two-fold shift from binge-watch in that it incorporates other media (not just television) and it reduces the negative connotations associated with bingeing.
This phrase also captures viewers' or readers' engrossment, effort, and sense of accomplishment surrounding their media interaction.
"[2] Media marathons can be organized around particular series, particular artists (e.g., Kurosawa or Hitchcock), or genres (e.g., horror films or chick flicks).
Producer-created marathons are usually orchestrated by movie theaters, fan sites, or by cable channels that show already-run seasons, and, more recently, with original first-run programming through streaming services (such as Netflix's House of Cards).
[4] Starting in the late 1940s, Journalists began using "marathon" in association with television events, according to archival research by media scholar Emil Steiner.
According to Matt Alt of The New Yorker, "Jump presaged the way the world consumes streaming entertainment today.
[10] The idea by Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert was based on a similar concept that radio stations used, in which songs by one particular artist would be played for a prolonged period of time.
While many marathons were initially considered rare, special events, since the 2010s it has become common for some channels to structure their daily schedules into blocks devoted to specific programs (usually three-to-four hours in length), mainly to appeal to and compete with subscription video-on-demand services (such as Hulu and Netflix) that have enabled voluntary "binge-watching" of television series.
[18] Perks attributes the contemporary marathoning trend to three factors: advances in content-delivery technologies, active audience behaviors, and increasing complexity of storytelling.
[25] The record was surpassed in 2015 by VH1 Classic, which broadcast a nineteen-day marathon of Saturday Night Live from January 28 to February 15, in honour of the program's 40th season (with its end date coinciding with the 40th-anniversary special episode on NBC).