Would It Be Better For Streaming Shows To Have Weekly Releases?

[SweetShop209]

When shows made for streaming became a regular thing, it was established to drop whole seasons of shows all at once, ranging anywhere from 10-13 episodes (sometimes less and sometimes more). However, with this method came the problem of not enough exposure and discussion. While there are people who can watch a full 10-13 episode sitting all at once and talk about them, it's something that's not as possible these days due to a number of factors. Some of these can include being busy with personal matters and his you can't watch everything all at once, seeing at least one spoilery clip or image and wanting to avoid spoilers in order to keep the surprise, or just not wanting to suffer from burnout. Following these reasons means that more meaningful discussion can occur more organically by not taking in everything all at once.

Here are a few examples. I think it was a smart move for Young Justice season 3 to not dump the whole season in 1 sitting, or even dump 2 sets of 13 episodes in one sitting. Instead, you have the first half of season 3 dumping 3-4 episodes every Friday while the second half of season 3 had 3 episodes on both July 2 and August 27, but the Tuesdays in between each had just 1 episode. There's also shows like Invincible, Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, Harley Quinn 2019, and The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse. These all follow through in not dumping whole seasons at once, which helped them generate more discussion. For Invincible, which has 45 minute episodes, there were 3 episodes that came out on March 26, 2021, but the remaining 5 episodes of season 1 came out weekly. Harley Quinn also followed through with weekly releases every Friday for both season 1 and season 2 (November 29, 2019-February 21, 2020 and April 3-June 26, 2020). It was likewise smart of Clone Wars season 7 to not drop all the episodes at once due to it being plot driven as well as the final season. As for The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse, it's 2 episodes every Friday, and they're all around 7 minutes long, which is also fair. It allows the humor to stick our more.

What do you think? Would it be better for streaming shows to flow weekly releases?

 

[Elijah Abrams]

Heck yeah! Viewers/fans need to be intrigued between episodes!

 

[PF9]

Producing and releasing some streaming shows as if they were being made for broadcast TV, including at least 22 episodes per season, being 20-22 or 42-44 minutes per episode, spots where ad breaks would go, and released over the late September to May window with hiatuses built in, should be a thing.

 

[JoeMabbon]

Producing and releasing some streaming shows as if they were being made for broadcast TV, including at least 22 episodes per season, being 20-22 or 42-44 minutes per episode, spots where ad breaks would go, and released over the late September to May window with hiatuses built in, should be a thing.

...Why do they need these things. How would ad breaks improve the viewing experience?

 

[PF9]

...Why do they need these things. How would ad breaks improve the viewing experience?

The actual ad breaks wouldn't exist on the streaming services, only if they got enough episodes for syndication to a basic cable network.

 

[M.O.D.O.K.]

I agree, I think a weekly format would be great. It generates more interest and more speculation. I think the only show that was ever helped by the binge format was Onyx Equinox when the remaining half got released.

 

[JMTV]

Abso-freaking-lutly!

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Of course and honestly, I was happy when Amazon Prime announced that Invincible would air new episodes weekly than on the same day like several Netflix originals.

 

[Moe]

It is totally up to creators and networks so that is fine with me.

 

[PF9]

The actual ad breaks wouldn't exist on the streaming services, only if they got enough episodes for syndication to a basic cable network.

What I mean by this is that there would be black screens in each episode inserted at several critical points, as if the program was going to go to commercial - but it doesn't.

This is how old broadcast network shows are presented on streaming services - the spots, or black screens, that would have cued a commercial break on linear TV are still there, but you do not see ads at all on some streaming services like Netflix, and if you subscribe to a no-ads tier on others.

Thus, streaming shows presented in such a matter that get syndicated to cable networks would be very easily able to put in commercial breaks in these shows.

I mean, this is how I want any TV shows set in a potential Pokemon Cinematic Universe (which Detective Pikachu would launch) to be presented for shows produced for HBOmax, as I want them to be influenced by broadcast network shows of years past.

 

[the_joker]

If the service wants to keep viewers around, then slower releases would be the better option, especially for those that miss watching new episodes of a show on a weekly basis.

Personally, I usually prefer to wait for all episodes of a show to be released so I could watch them all on my own time and at a steady pace.