How much of “Transparent”‘s success is due to Amazon’s decision to release it’s first season’s episodes in a Netflix-like “binge watching” approach? Based on results, the approach works. The entire season was released on September 26, 2014 and already renewed for a second season on October 9th, less than two weeks later.
This is clearly a reflection of Netflix, who has released its entire seasons of original shows like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” at one time. A year ago, Amazon’s first two original series, “Betas” and “Alpha House” were released in the more traditional manner of one new episode debuting each week. It took Amazon a few months from the premiere until the announcements to renew or cancel. “Alpha House” was given a second season while “Betas” was cancelled.
Amazon has announced that Season 2 of “Alpha House” will be released all at once, unlike it’s first year of episodes.
Amazon, Netflix and other services like Hulu are in the infancy of releasing studio quality “Television” shows on their online services. They are still fine tuning how this process works, from the time of year to release new shows and the choice between coming out with the entire batch of shows at once or releasing them on a weekly basis. Hulu has taken the weekly approach with “The Awesomes”, an animated superhero parody led by Seth Meyers, and featuring the voices of Meyers and other comedians from the SNL / NBC / Lorne Michaels camp. The show has completed two seasons, with a third on the way. However, its buzz is quite weak compared to the successes on Netflix, Amazon and traditional TV shows like “Game of Thrones” and “Breaking Bad”.
Obviously, the entire season can’t be released for everything. Chelsea Handler’s new late night series for Netflix will likely be topical, and wouldn’t make sense to release more than one episode of a time. However, for most traditional TV formats debuting on an online VOD service, the entire season approach has seen the most success.