The film business has constantly been experimenting with distribution and experience when it comes to streaming ever since the juggernaut, Netflix, revolutionized movie viewing. Recently, Netflix itself has been trying to re-find its footing in an ever-changing climate of the streaming world. Once studios got in the game by releasing their own services, companies like Disney, Warner, and Paramount would start gathering their properties and offering them exclusively to their own channels.
Recently, it has been reported that Netflix is set to offer a tiered system where a cheaper one is ad-supported. In a new development, ScreenRant reports that they may try to switch up binge-releasing of TV shows to the more traditional scheduled releasing. Another way Netflix impacted TV viewing was the business model of dumping a full season’s worth of episodes of an original series all at once on the same day. People took greatly to binge-watching as their popular shows, like Stranger Things and Cobra Kai, would usually leave the viewer wanting more and gave them the control of going straight to the next episode.
Meanwhile, other streaming services like Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO Max have opted to try it both ways for a lot of their content. Most notably, these companies are releasing some of their more popular shows on a traditional week-to-week schedule. Currently, Netflix only uses this model for reality show releases, but in a recently posted newsletter by Puck News, the streaming giant is aiming to move away from its signature business model. Matthew Belloni explains that Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, “has seemed unwilling to pivot off the binge model because he hasn’t needed or wanted to. Now, it appears, he does.”
It seems they are easing their way into it as they split the seasons of shows like Ozark and Stranger Things into two. Audiences look to greatly benefit from a slowly doled-out schedule as it is usually hard to navigate spoilers online with the full season released.
What do you think? Are you in favor of this?