Bingeing, Weekly, or Batches? Is There a Right Way to Roll Out a Series on Streaming?
Bingeing, Weekly, or Batches? Is There a Right Way to Roll Out a Series on Streaming?
Between bingeing, weekly, or batches, is there a right way that streaming services try and get you to keep watching?
Waiting 5 years in between seasons definitely isn't it...
I just recently watched seasons 3 and 4 of stranger things because I had only seen the first two when they first came out. I thought 5 was gonna be right around the corner, and I found out it still doesn't have a release date and season 4 actually came out almost 4 years ago... Like what the hell is going on? I get scheduling can make filming a pain in the ass, but the only one of the cast who's been doing anything the last few years is David Harbour. Not even Finn Wolfhard, who was in every other teen movie from like 2016-2019.
Eddie Munson's actor is in Fantastic Four
I prefer the all at once approach so I can watch it at my own pace. If it releases weekly, whether a few a week or one a week, I ignore it until the season is done and if I remember, then I watch at my pace.
Alternatively I wait till the show has run its course entirely and then whenever I remember, I watch it and finish it if it keeps my interest.
I've probably been through every release scheduling approach the distributors can try, so I'm done trying to follow them (especially when they make it unclear which they're trying this time). If the show catches my interest, I'll watch it whenever and however I prefer pending its availability.
Whichever method doesn't mess with production. Just release a fully baked product.
Sometimes the pressure of weekly production is a good thing, but it's almost all about the style and capacity of the writing.
But no, the article is about marketing.
Wait until the season pack is available as a torrent, then binge it
One new episode per week means you hook subscribers for more than one month. It also makes it easier to fill out your programming schedule with new content all year.
I really enjoyed what Andor season 2 did - 3 Episodes a week. It’s like getting a movie each week.
Weekly with batches seems to be the best.
Two-three episodes premiere, weekly episode release, two-three episode finale.
The Netflix method of splitting the season into two binges a month apart is the worst method. As the article notes the last season of Stranger Things did almost everything, a month or so delay, then the finale. That sucked and took a lot of wind out of the sails. They plan to do a similar thing with the finale season which is a mistake.
Disney+ has this right so far. Drop a few at once, next week drop a few more. Andor did it in three episode groups. Daredevil did smaller groups. Spider-Man did small groups. It's the best way.
If you want to drop it all at once, I'm in for that too, but I suspect that method is slowly going away.
Weekly releases is the "standard" and I'm good with that as long as it's actually weekly. Some shows that air on "regular TV" still have random skip weeks for sweeps or whatever stupid reason exists. I hate when an episode just isn't airing. I'm prepared for weekly, be weekly.
Batches feels like the worst option. All the “what happened?” problems of binging, repeated like 3 or 4 times