What do you think of the way TV+ series are released

[Nigel Goodman]

I noticed that an interesting new series - Tehran - was released earlier but I didn't start watching for a couple of weeks. I was also aware that it was being released in stages - I think (without going back to look) that the first three were released all at once with the rest later. What had escaped me was that 'later' meant individual episodes being released weekly.

So I started to watch it and it is as good as I was expecting. Even my partner, who doesn't particularly like subtitles programmes, was engrossed. We watched daily until we had to stop as there were no more episodes. We had to wait a week - until today - for the next episode and then another week until the final.

Is this a good way to release a new series? Its has been quite annoying to get used to watching daily then finding you have to wait a week between the remainder of the episodes. Pay more attention Nigel, is the answer I suppose!

 

[0128672]

This is the way they've done several series releases. I think it's pretty great. You can watch the first three to see if you like it and then stick with it for the remaining weekly releases. I think during these days/months where TV productions are slowed down, it's a good way to make the content last longer.

 

[mallbritton]

I remember a day... in the dim, dark past... when every week at a certain time of the evening we would all gather 'round the glowing square box (called a Television!) and watched a show. We had to do this every week if we wanted to keep up with the show!

 

[nutmac]

I like weekly release BUT Apple TV+, Disney+, Paramount+, etc. are in the habit of releasing all of their series on Thursday or Friday. I wish they are more spread out throughout the week.

 

[Nigel Goodman]

I also am perfectly used to waiting a week for the next episode of a TV series. No problem with that.

My comment was really about getting used to watching in one way (i.e. daily) and then finding that the routine you had got used to was no longer available. Again, I suppose it's my fault for not paying attention at the beginning.

 

[pmiles]

Unfortunately people are used to binge watching shows... yes, long long ago in a galaxy far far away, you literally had to wait for another exciting episode to be aired the following week (at a time when there were only 3 stations available even). Then there were the serial runs of old classics aired on odd channels which ran shows consecutively non-stop for several hours a day... Gilligan's Isle, Perry Mason, Third Rock from the Sun. Baby boomers you know what I mean.

Now they try to hook you with a few episodes upfront (usually 3 at once), then release the rest once a week or go full on tease with one episode week only. But the kicker here is they are short seasons, usually about half the number of episodes that you would get on live TV. They make you wait a year or more for another season which normally would have been a single season from our pst experiences pre-streaming.

So what you get to do now is either, spend money waiting for episodes to air to watch as they are released, or wait until the entire season has finished airing and then spend money to watch said shows as you like (usually binge style).

The streaming services are going to have to figure out how to navigate the binge nature of consumption in order to maintain subscriptions beyond a 1 month sub or accept the fact that most viewers aren't going to stick around during the dry spells.

COVID-19 is showing what affect movie releases or lack thereof have had on entertainment. TV (beyond simple reality TV shows) as well. They can't get the content out fast enough to meet our demand. People are burning through content at a rate never seen before... which leads to earlier departure from the services than ever before... as people search for something new to watch that isn't just a single episode each week to watch.

If COVID-19 stays around another year, the entertainment industry is going to have one hell of a bad time and we are going to find ourselves watching TikTok more and more.