As the internet is well aware, Season 2 of House of Cards was released today. As with the past season, it was released all at once. While this is a modern, unconventional rock-the-boat strategy, I dislike it, and don't think it's wise.
With conventional broadcast TV, episodes are released one by one, week after week, in a scheduled timeslot, unless they're preempted by happenings. Either way, the day after airing, people discuss the episode, and most importantly, memory and current activity of a show can last up to half a year. With something like House of Cards, you could watch all thirteen episodes one by one at a self-chosen time and pace yourself, but with all the content already available, why wait? Especially when others will have just "binge watched" (a term I dislike because it's the sort of term old media would come up with to try and sound relevant) it all in a day. Now their minds are loaded with spoilers that, if they are a decent human, they won't share. Once you've caught up and are ready to discuss it, it's no longer fresh in their mind. What's more, House of Cards isn't likely to cross their mind until a few weeks before Season 3 is released, when the hype and 'news' starts surging.
When a broadcast TV show is off the air for a while, even just a mid-season break, it doesn't exactly aid the popularity of the show - more casual viewers will forget about it when it returns. When a show is 'on' for one day a year and then the wait commences again, memories will forget.
Other than the broken social 'watercooler' aspect of House of Cards, where a typical conversation is merely:
"Do you watch House of Cards?"
"Yes. It's awesome, right?"
"Totally"
"Good talk"
missing any intricacies or plot details for fear of spoiling it, as far as I can see, this strategy does work for Netflix, as it's a subscription based service that people tend to visit on a whim when they've got nothing else to do, and dipping in and out at your own pace works a lot better when you aren't then waiting for the next episode to become available. However, I hope that traditional media companies don't try this model, as it will not work.