There have always been TV fanatics, or enthusiasts, sure. I vegged out a lot as a kid. As tech has changed, though, the game is totally different, and people are being actively coerced into binge-watching.

Yesterday, we had Nielsen doing rough tracking of viewership (IIRC, installing a Nielsen box was/is totally optional!), opinion polls, and focus groups. Mostly aggregate data on a program's performance.

Today, we're building elaborate user profiles and tailoring the viewing experience to the individual, using who-knows-what details (demographics, personal viewing habits, Amazon purchase history, eye-tracking data from your smart TV, you get the idea). These companies have a really good idea of what you like, and will use whatever data they can to maximize the time you spend on their platform.

That's how I remember it, but one difference in my experience was that it was understood by everyone that watching lots of TV was considered bad, but we all went ahead and did so anyway. Now it's considered normal to "binge" on TV, and I find it very disconcerting that people are using that word without even being tongue-in-cheek about it.