Netflix’s decision to spread the release of its hottest property, Stranger Things 5, in three separate batches over 35 days at the end of the year confirms the rise of the split-season release date.
Netflix introduced binge-watching, and so it seems appropriate that it is the company that is now helping put the concept to rest. When it released all thirteen episodes of House of Cards online in 2013, it changed the consumer landscape. By 2017, 70% of US consumers binge-watched TV shows, watching an average of five episodes per session.
By 2022, however, as we wrote, only Netflix and Hulu were still maintaining the binge-watching orthodoxy. That year, it released all seven episodes of the first volume of Stranger Things Season 4 online in a nine-hour bundle. However, the writing on the wall for the pure binge was detectable even then, as the second set of two episodes (almost four hours’ worth) was released 40 days later.
Stranger Things Season 5 takes the concept further, splitting the show into three volumes. Furthermore, it ties them directly into the US holiday season, the volumes dropping on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve. It’s a smart bit of scheduling that promises to dominate conversations over an extended period, and for streamers such as Netflix it promises the best of both worlds: the initial surge of interest you get as part of a binge drop and the stickiness that a slower release schedule offers.
A staggering evolution
Netflix first started experimenting with the split-season release model in 2019, with episodes of reality competition shows The Great British Baking Show (its renamed reruns of the UK’s cultural institution The Great British Bake-off) and Rhythm + Flow released on a weekly basis. In many ways this was an A/B test: the Baking Show was a classic weekly drop, while the hip-hop competition series Rhythm + Flow dropped four episodes per week. The reality competition genre was chosen for the trial as less people binged it than drama or comedy
Since then, the experiment has spread. Ozark, YOU, The Crown, Bridgerton, and Love is Blind have all enjoyed split-season releases, as has Squid Game Seasons 2 & 3 this year and the forthcoming Wednesday Season 2 as well. But Stranger Things is by far the most high-profile example to date. And it also shows the change in thinking as the reasoning behind splitting Season 4 and 5 has changed markedly over two years.
The Season 4 split-season release was an enforced decision as the large amount of post-production work required for visual effects on the final episodes meant that they were not going to make the initial release date. And while post-production requirements are definitely still a factor when talking about Season 5, the split this time is a conscious choice made to maximize audience engagement, extend viewership, and more.
6 good reasons for the split-season release
So, what are the reasons behind following the split-season release path? Here are 6 of the top ones.
- Reducing churn. By spacing out releases, streamers can ensure a new high-profile show stretches across two or even three months’ membership rather than a single month. This helps reduce churn, plus ensures those that are joining just to watch a single show do so for more than the minimum time period.
- Less system stress. Dropping 10 episodes of a popular series on to the servers all at once puts strain on a system with significant and concurrent demand spikes possible. Spreading these out over weeks means less resource has to be allocated by guesswork and peaks can be planned for.
- Anti-piracy. While leaks from within an organisation pre-broadcast can occur, they are far less common than illegal streams established once a show is live on the internet. By throttling releases, streamers can ensure that not all of their IP is stolen if a breach occurs.
- Water cooler moments. Not every show is going to be able to straddle the holiday season quite in the way that Stranger Things 5 will, but a spaced-out release schedule gives more time for shows to have an impact on social media and elsewhere.
- Increased promos. As well as this, multiple release dates also generate repeated promotional opportunities. These can be set up within the EPG, as pre-roll ads and bumpers, or even via traditional media outlets such as billboards etc.
- Keeping up with competitors. The split-season release is becoming increasingly the new normal in streaming and expected by viewers. Yes, there will always be some holdouts and a percentage of viewers that wait till a show is fully released before watching, but these are increasingly in the minority.
The middle path is popular
In many ways the split-season release is the middle path that mixes binge watching with the weekly drop. By releasing episodes in fairly hefty batches of four instalments or more, it seeks to balance the streaming legacy of binge-watching with the notable marketing benefits of appointment TV.
Recently, an even more obvious hybrid has emerged, a form of split-season release lite. This essentially front loads a weekly drop, with two or three episodes released initially at the same time before the series then pivots to the weekly release schedule. This has become a very popular tactic with Prime Video and Apple TV, both of whose high-profile shows now almost exclusively follow this model.
What are the other big streamers doing? Disney+ has tended to follow the weekly drop model, though notably one of its big tentpole releases for this summer, Ironheart, will see all three of its first episodes release on June 24. HBO has kept true to its broadcast roots and released the vast majority of its highest-profile series weekly. Broadcasters such as the BBC, meanwhile, have found themselves mixing things up even further by releasing weekly via traditional linear TV on the one hand while simultaneously dropping episodes in batches for online viewing.
A split strategy
So, is this the end of binge-releases? It is unlikely that they will ever fully go away. For some genres of programming, especially dramas, and especially first-run dramas, they remain a useful tool in creating a quick, sudden flare of interest. However, once a series is established it is notable that it is then more likely to feature as a split-season release on its return for all the reasons mentioned above.
Netflix’s Wednesday is a prime example of this. The streamer’s third biggest show of all time debuted as a binge-release in November 2022, but Season 2 is being split in two, with four episodes dropping Wednesday (of course), August 6 and four more on September 3. That means that Episode 5 will only arrive one week later than it would have done on a weekly drop, but will have 6, 7, and 8 right alongside it as well.
Netflix might be a comparatively latecomer to the split-season release strategy, but it has aggressively captured first mover rights for the holiday season this year. And if its plan for Stranger Things 5 works, both in dominating the cultural conversation and in viewing figures, expect to see other streamers look to investigate similar split-season strategies tied to public holidays and wider cultural events in the future.
