There has been a lot of conversation lately about what is the best way to drop a new season. Periodic release of an episode, mostly weekly, was the norm on linear television. Each episode of a season dropped on the same day of a week.
However, Netflix changed the rules of the game in 2013. It released all episodes of House of Cards at the same time. That is when audiences embraced binge watching where they watched all episodes back to back within a short period of time. And ever since, every few years, there have been debates and conversations around which is the best way to release a show.
HBO/HBO Max shows such as Peacemaker and Euphoria, which are released weekly, have set the screen alight with its recent success. At the same time, there has been a lack of any hugely successful show on Netflix recently where usually all episodes of a season drops at once. This has led to the revival of the debate against Netflix’s release strategy.
Few fans and audiences believe that by having a weekly strategy, these HBO Max shows grew through word of mouth with engagements increasing every week a new episode was released. Also, with episodes releasing weekly, the show remains relevant for longer and part of conversations for more than a period of 2 months as episodes keep dropping. On the other side, the shelf life of a show on Netflix could potentially be shorter as all episodes are released at the same time with viewers binge watching the show.
However, this has been proven wrong time and again in the past with good quality shows have shown this to not be the case. For example, last year’s smashing hit, Squid Game, remained popular for months after it was released as word about the show spread globally.
But is Netflix evaluating a shift in strategy for upcoming shows? Speculation is rife that Netflix may give in to the weekly release model due to various reasons.
First, an all-at-once strategy is difficult to sustain over longer periods as new seasons of different shows are expected to be dropped every week. However, Netflix has managed this remarkably well over the last 8 years so it seems premature to write-off their ability to pull it off in the future as well.
Second, Netflix is increasingly releasing seasons of the marquee shows in two parts. Some view this as a precursor to moving towards a more fragmented release strategy. Last year, shows like Money Heist and Lupin were released in two parts. Recently, Ozark dropped part 1 of its final season. Also, season 4 of Stranger Things is to be released in two parts. However, at least as far as Stranger Things is considered, the length of the show is twice more than any other previous single season. Also, with both parts of Stranger Things (and presumably Ozark) releasing on either side of the Emmy Award cut-off date (31st May), a single season of the show would be eligible for awards across two years. Both these shows have also traditionally been huge favourites at the Emmys and having a shot at the honours across multiple years could be the driving force behind a split release.
Ted Sarandos, Netflix Co-Ceo, in an earnings call two years ago had said that he does not see Netflix moving away from the all-at-once model meaningfully. But at the end of the day, Netflix is driven by data and if testing results show output to the contrary, Netflix would certainly consider changing its strategy. Prime Video, too, has moved to a weekly release strategy for a few of its shows. With all the other major OTT platforms (such as Apple TV+ and Disney+) following a staggered or hybrid approach to releasing content with positive results, it will be interesting to see how Netflix evolves over the coming months.