It’s  November! Usually not a very exciting month. It’s the beginning of ever colder and ever darker days. Though in this dire month, something might just keep people’s hopes up: Apple TV+ and Disney+ launched, and on the other side of the pond only in the Netherlands so far! This leads to our word of the month November – Comakijken.

Click here for previous Words of the Month

What does it mean?

Image by Matthew T Rader at Unsplash.com

Comakijken literally means “coma watching”, and I think you know what it means: “to binge (watch)”. You have heard of the term before – watching a lot of TV (especially the same show) back to back! The Dutch term is a bit darker than the English term, suggesting that watching so much would get you into a coma. It is a samenstelling from televisie kijken (watching TV) and comazuipen (coma drinking), which refers to excessive alcohol consumption that can actually lead to a coma. We also have alternative terms, like anglisering (anglisation) bingewatchen. Or marathonkijken (to marathon watch). Though comakijken actually made it on the 2013 list of Woord van het Jaar (word of the year) candidates of Van Dale, it did not win – that year it was selfie.

The term really became popular when streaming service Netflix started releasing entire seizoenen (seasons) of televisieseries (television shows) in one go, instead of one aflevering (episode) per week.

Relevance to November

Netflix will be facing some stiff competition in the coming years (Image by Thibault Penin at Unsplash.com)

This November saw the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1 and the launch of Disney Plus on November 12. The latter only arrived in the US, Canada and the Netherlands. It was even in a free beta for a few weeks in the Netherlands before that. 600,000 huishoudens (households) in our small country signed up! But why did Disney choose the Netherlands for this?

Ennèl van Eeden, expert on this market at adviesbureau (consultancy) PWC, told the Volkskrant: “We worden vaak gezien als ideale testmarkt. We hebben snel internet en staan meer dan anderen open voor internationale series. En Nederland is niet zo’n groot land. Als het hier misgaat, is dat minder erg.” (We are often seen as an ideal trial market. We have a fast internet connection and are more than others open to international shows. And the Netherlands is not such a big country. If something goes wrong here, it is not such a big deal.)

There you go!

If you want some Dutch TV and movie recommendations, you can stay right here on the blog! Have a look at the posts here and here and here. Veel kijkplezier!

Whether it is Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV+ or any of the Dutch services like Videoland or NPO Start Plus, November is a great month to cuddle up for some comakijken. Or to just sleep more. Stay warm and refreshed, everybody!