Collins Dictionary have announced their words of the year, and coming in at first place is ‘binge-watch’.

Thanks to the popularity of subscription services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, there has been a marked change in the way we watch television.

Earlier this year, Netflix announced that screenwriters were placing less emphasis on pilot episodes, because placing an entire series online immediately, allows people to glean storylines throughout the series, rather than needing to learn key information immediately.

Lexicographers noted a 200% increase in the term’s usage in the last year, alone.

According to a recent survey, more than 90% of television viewers claim to ‘binge-watch’ programmes – defined as watching more than three episodes of a series in one day - and 37% of people reported spending an entire weekend watching a series.

Helen Newstead, head of language content at Collins, says: “The rise in usage of 'binge-watch' is clearly linked to the biggest sea change in our viewing habits since the advent of the video recorder nearly 40 years ago.”

“It's not uncommon for viewers to binge-watch a whole season of programmes such as House Of Cards or Breaking Bad in just a couple of evenings - something that, in the past, would have taken months - then discuss their binge-watching on social media,” she says.

'Binge-watch' has been named Word of the Year. Here's what it says about life in 2015