Makers of Indian and foreign series adopt different release strategies for their shows on OTT, and this has been an age-old debate amongst audiences. Some shows release their episodes all at once. For instance, Amazon Prime Video’s ‘The Family Man’ and ‘Jack Ryan’, etc. While some shows follow a weekly episode release strategy. For E.g., Disney+ Hotstar’s ‘Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach’ and Marvel shows on OTT.
But there are some rare instances where the episodes of a show are released on a daily basis. One recent example is that of the mythological forensic thriller series ‘Asur Season-2’. In this case, Jio Cinema adopted the ‘one episode per day’ release model. It’s a different thing that all episodes of ‘Asus S2’ were later released all at once because of an online leak.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight and as an afterthought and despite the leak leading to Jio Cinema releasing all episodes of ‘Asur Season-2, there is one thing which is that Jio Cinema’s ‘one episode per day’ release model could be a lesson to be learned by OTT platforms.
One school of thought for the rare ‘one episode per day’ release strategy for Asus S2 is that the makers seem to have taken a middle road of releasing all episodes at once and releasing episodes on a weekly basis (like in the case of most HBO shows like ‘Succession’ and ‘House of the Dragon’). To derive the best of both worlds.
One more logical point of view which makes sense is that a significant segment of audiences consume OTT content post office hours, that is, usually after 7-8 PM. And they mostly have just the kind of time to spend 45 mins to one hour watching a show rather than binge watching the whole season at one go. Binge watching is possible during weekends but during weekdays, so watching one episode per day looks like a sensible strategy by Jio Cinema.
But for another segment of OTT audiences (students, housewives, retired people etc.), who have the time to binge-watch OTT content – the ‘one episode per day’ release model might turn out to be a disappointment for them.
For other viewers, shows can be released at one go but during the weekend, not weekdays. Moreover, the ‘one episode per day’ release strategy might create more curiosity, fan theories, and discussions amongst fans. Having said that, it concurrently suffers from a rather less satisfactory and less enjoyable binge-watching experience.
‘Asur Season-2’ may not have unanimously received great reviews from all critics but it’s planned release model could be a lesson which can be learned by other OTT platforms including Jio Cinema itself. Which series streaming model do you enjoy more, and which one is better according to you: binge-release model, weekly episodes model, or the ‘one episode per day’ release model adopted by OTT platforms?
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