Good afternoon from Los Angeles, wherever you may be. I will try to keep it brief since most of us have a long weekend.
Let's start with a poll. Your favorite TV show is coming back this week; would you rather episodes be released all at once, weekly or in batches of three?
This wasn't a debate 10 years ago, because TV networks all released their shows weekly. Netflix changed the paradigm, as it has in so many other ways, by releasing all episodes of a TV series at once and spawning the concept of "binge viewing."
The success of Netflix has convinced some people that this type of release is the best approach. If it works for Netflix, it must work for everybody else. But this argument is conflating the superiority of Netflix's product with the superiority of binge viewing.
People love Netflix because it's on-demand; people want to choose when to watch a show instead of having to show up at a prescribed time. Live TV is silly unless you're watching sports or news. People don't like ads; they'll tolerate them, but they prefer not to watch them.
Binging? People like it, there is no doubt. But is it the best way?
I have worse recall for shows I binge. I am not alone. Many people feel shows get lost on Netflix, or failed to be part of the cultural conversation for very long because of the way in which they released.
Netflix knows dropping episodes all at once doesn't work for all TV. The service has experimented with different strategies for talk shows like Hasan Minhaj and David Letterman, and is about to release a new music competition show in batches of episodes.
Former Netflix employee Alexandre Giess said Netflix actually tested releasing episodes weekly last year, but decided customers didn't prefer it. Just testing the spaced out release without testing a shift in the volume of shows or marketing isn't sufficient. You release shows weekly to put more firepower behind them.
At the same time Netflix has had success with its drops, other networks have thrived using more traditional models. It's hard to think of a more popular show in the world than "Game of Thrones." HBO milked the most out of its last couple seasons by not only releasing episodes weekly, but also spacing it out over two years.
You could say that this wasn't good for the consumer, but tell that to the people who love reading weekly recaps and hypothesizing about different characters. Many other shows, be it "Empire" or "Breaking Bad," built up their audience over time.
Most of Netflix's new streaming competitors are hewing to more traditional models as well. Disney+ will release episodes weekly, while Apple TV+ will use a hybrid model, releasing in batches and then weekly. (Chris Ryan and I discussed the various approach everyone is taking, and what this will mean for customers, on the latest episode of his podcast "The Watch.")
This is not to say that the traditional approach has won out. If anything, as every media company races to copy Netflix with a streaming service of their own, the differing release strategies maybe one of the few areas of experimentation and innovation we have left. -- Lucas Shaw
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