TV Time founder Ting Chen is launching Bingers, a new social platform designed to serve the community displaced by TV Time's shutdown. The move allows users to import their complete watch histories from the defunct app, preserving years of viewing data and the social graph that formed around the service.
TV Time built a passionate user base by letting viewers track episodes, rate shows, and discuss series with other fans. The app accumulated millions of users who relied on it as their central hub for TV fandom. When Chen decided to shut down the original service, fans faced losing both their personal viewing records and the social connections they'd built on the platform.
Bingers takes a community-first approach to filling the gap. The app will support data migration from TV Time, meaning existing users won't start from scratch. More importantly, Chen has focused the new product on preserving the social dynamics that made TV Time valuable. Users can continue discussing shows, connecting with other fans, and building watchlists within a single ecosystem.
The timing reflects a broader shift in how fans engage with television. As traditional TV viewership fragments across streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+, fans increasingly seek centralized spaces to organize their consumption and connect with others. Apps like Letterboxd proved that social features around entertainment create durable, engaged communities worth building platforms around.
Bingers faces competition from existing solutions. Trakt remains the dominant independent TV-tracking app. Reddit communities dedicated to specific shows offer robust discussion spaces. Streaming platforms themselves have added social features to their apps. Still, none fully replicate what TV Time offered. A platform built by the original creator, with migration support, starts with genuine advantages.
Chen's decision to build Bingers rather than sell TV Time's remaining assets suggests confidence in the underlying market. Fans spent years organizing their viewing habits on TV Time. That behavioral lock-in, combined with the social connections