“Disney+ bets on a seven-day rollout, Netflix sticks to all-at-once drops and Apple TV+ experiments with both as the strategies spark a data debate and ‘a gut-level conversation…about what shows are better suited to which rollout,'” Natalie Jarvey writes for The Hollywood Reporter:
When Disney+ users logged in to the service for the first time Nov. 12, they found thousands of classic movies and television shows. But there was only one, 40-minute episode of the service’s most high-profile original series, Jon Favreau’s Star Wars-adjacent The Mandalorian. For now, Disney plans to roll out all of the streamer’s originals on a weekly basis, showing its commitment to a legacy TV release strategy in an era when, thanks to Netflix, audiences are accustomed to having all the programming they can devour at their fingertips.
Hollywood has been weighing the merits of the binge model ever since Netflix popularized it with House of Cards in 2013. But with four streaming services expected to launch by the end of 2020, the question of how to release a TV show is taking on new urgency.
Each platform is approaching the calculation differently: Apple, which dropped its first batch of TV+ shows Nov. 1, has opted for multiple rollout strategies. It released Hailee Steinfeld period comedy Dickinson all at once but only the first three episodes of dramas The Morning Show, See and For All Mankind, which will unfold weekly.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, it makes no sense for Apple to release entire seasons all at once as they are currently building up a catalog from scratch and also running a 7-day free trial, plus customers who purchase any new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch get one year of Apple TV+ for free.
Weekly releases of episodes also greatly cuts down on spoilers! There is something to be said for anticipation vs. immediate gratification. Plus, with weekly releases, you never have that “Great, we watched them all in a weekend and now we have to wait another year for Stranger Things!” feeling. Too long a time elapses and then you find you’ve forgotten a lot!