To release or to not release full seasons of scripted show for binge viewing was a question several cable network and OTT service executives wrestled with recently, coming to differing opinions.

OTT service Netflix, which accelerated the phenomenon of launching a full season of a series’ episodes at one time with the debut of Emmy-nominated shows House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, is fully committed to continuing to allow viewers to binge its shows.

Competitor Amazon is also binge-releasing its original series, albeit reluctantly, according to the company’s director, Roy Price. He told AdWeek that he worries about losing the “pleasurable anticipation” of the next episode when you offer everything all at once, but concedess that viewers are used to getting all episodes of Transparent and other Amazon shows when they debut on Amazon Prime.

And viewers love to binge. More than 30% of viewers surveyed in a recent Tivo Spring 2015 Binge Viewing Survey said they deliberately put off watching an entire season of a show until they can watch the whole season at once, a slight increase from the 2014 survey.

In addition, 39% said some shows are better watched back-to-back, according to the survey.

Yet OTT service Hulu still believes in building viewership for a series on a week-to-week basis and will not consider releasing entire seasons of its original shows. Hulu content chief Craig Erwich said during the recent Television Critics Association tour that the service wants to preserve the “water cooler” experience that comes with watching shows on the traditional weekly TV schedule.

Even cable networks are getting in on the act. Starz recently said it will test the binge-viewing phenomena this fall when it launches all new episodes from the final season of drama series Da Vinci’s Demons and the first season of dance-themed series Flesh & Bone on its Starz Play TV Everywhere service prior to each show’s debut on the Starz pay TV service.

Turner Broadcasting is taking a slightly different tack. It will release the first four episodes of TNT's new drama Public Morals the day after the series premieres on the network Aug. 25.

For the foreseeable future, content distribution companies will continue to go back and forth over the binge-releasing strategy as they continue testing the best ways to engage viewers in an ever-evolving home entertainment marketplace.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Premium pay TV network Starz is borrowing an over-the-top programming tactic by offering all episodes of two original series — Da Vinci’s Demons and Flesh and Bone — on its Starz Play TV everywhere app before they premiere on the cable network. The programmer also said it’s considering a standalone online subscription offering, a path recently paved in part by rivals HBO and Showtime. Starz CEO Chris Albrecht discussed those topics, as well as Starz’s desire to reach diverse audiences, with Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead at last week’s Television Critics Association summer press tour here.

MCN:What prompted you to provide binge-viewing opportunities for two original series?

Chris Albrecht: We made the fans wait a long time for the third season of Da Vinci’s Demons, so we’ll put it up and let the fans gorge themselves on it. I think when people watch the first episode of Flesh and Bone, they’ll want to immediately see episode two and episode three. We have the TV everywhere platform on Starz Play so we can do it without affecting the linear run, so if you want to watch one a week you can, but if the fans want to watch it a different way it’s one of the nice promises of premium — you can have it any way you want.

MCN:Will it affect the performance of episodes when they premiere on the linear channel?

CA: You hope that all of this stuff is additive. What we and everybody else do now is count multiplatform viewers, so where they watch it and when they watch it is a lot less material than it would be if you were in an ad-supported space, where you’re trying to drive eyeballs to the first commercial. This is the third season of Da Vinci’s Demons, so the fans are waiting for it, and we have what is going to be a well-talked-about show in Flesh and Bone, so these are two interesting ones to try this with. If it works, we’ll do some more. We’re curious to see how this plays out and what we learn from this so we can start thinking about other things that we might do going forward.

MCN:Staying with new technologies, can you talk about Starz’s plans to potentially launch an over-the-top service?

CA: We’re watching what’s going on. We’re hoping for and seeing some interesting innovations within our traditional [pay TV] partners — I wish they would do more and do it faster — but that’s their businesses. We’re interested to see what the results are from what HBO and Showtime are doing. We have the capability of doing the same thing, but it’s early days for us, and we’re looking at everything to try to figure out what’s the best net benefit for Starz’s business, and make those choices based on that.

MCN:You recently mentioned that the network would generate some 75 to 80 of scripted shows in 2015. Has Starz reached its ceiling for original content, or are you looking to add more shows to the portfolio?

CA: I think it’s a bit of wait-and-see. We have a lot of shows in the pipeline. We have three dramas we’ve green-lit — American Gods, One Percent and Counterpart — and we have [the second season of] The Missing and The Girlfriend Experience in the pipeline. We’re not going to throw more stuff because we want to see what goes where.

Obviously, we announced some new programming like Antonio Banderas and the Havana Project. Plus our existing shows are doing well: Power is shooting the lights out with audiences, and we have two great comedies coming up, and Ash vs. Evil Dead will be — no pun intended — a monster, so we are in good shape. More is probably better, but we’ll see as we get these things figured out.

MCN:How do you see the competition shaping up with regard to original programming in the marketplace?

CA: There are a lot of people making a lot of television in the marketplace, and a lot of it seems to be pretty good. The flip side of the fact that there are a lot of shows out there is that there are a lot of training grounds for new writers and new voices. So the biggest obstacle to making a TV show is finding the really talented person who can do it who has a great point of view about something. I think good television shows are the breeding ground for those people.

MCN:Are there any other directives you’re looking to initiate for Starz over the next few months?

CA: I think we’re doing a real good job reaching women and African-Americans, and we’d like to reach out to bilingual, second-generation Hispanic audiences as well. We’re also into reaching millennials and I think they will be drawn to Ash vs. Evil Dead. The LGBT audience is one that we’d like to reach and one that isn’t really being serviced in the premium space all that well. The idea of serving underserved audiences is one that we like and we’ve been getting traction with it, and then good shows bring in other audiences.

Starz will make all episodes of the final season of Da Vinci’s Demons and of freshman series Flesh and Bone available online before each show debuts on the channel, Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said Friday at the Television Critics Association tour.

The final 10-episodes of Da Vinci’s Demons will debut on Starz Play and Starz On Demand prior to returning to Starz on Oct. 24, while eight episodes of Flesh And Bone will be offered for binge viewing before its Nov. 8 network debut.

“It’s fun to try to do different things with [original] programming because we can,” Albrecht said. “Starz has had a fantastic year with original programming in 2015 and we are rewarding our Starz subscribers with two special opportunities to immerse themselves into quality series and enjoy them on their own schedules."

He added said the premium network would consider implementing the binge-viewing strategy with other shows, although he would not say which if any shows are being considered.

Starz also said it ordered up a fourth season of pirate drama Black Sails and  greenlit a new drama series, Havana Quartet, starring Antonio Banderas.

Overall, Albrecht said that Starz will offer 75 to 80 episodes of original series content in 2015.

Fans of Starz’s Da Vinci’s Demons will get the chance to engage with the series’ cast members during the premium network’s catch-up marathon on May 31.

Starz will host #DaVinciThon, a dual-screen social media event on Saturday from noon until 9 p.m.

During the fantasy series’ sophomore season catch-up marathon, fans can engage with series stars stationed in Iceland, Colombia and parts of the United Kingdom through a live conversation fueled by on-air, real-time hashtags and behind-the-scenes content. The social media event serves as a social media lead-in to the season finale at 9 p.m.  (ET/PT).

Each series star will host at least one hour of the conversation, kicking off with “Da Vinci” himself, Tom Riley. Also featured are Elliot Cowan (Lorenzo de Medici);  Gregg Chillin (Zoroaster); Laura Haddock (Lucrezia Donati); Hera Hilmar (Vanessa); Carolina Guerra (Ima); and Eros Vlahos (Nico).

Starz is giving its subscribers a chance to binge-watch season two of its historical fantasy drama Da Vinci’s Demons this Memorial Day Weekend. 

The premium programmer will air the four most recent installments -- "The Rope of the Dead," "The Vault of Heaven","The Fall from Heaven" and "The Enemies of Man" -- of Da Vinci’s Demons consecutively, beginning at 8 p.m. (ET/PT) on Saturday, May 24

The following Saturday, May 31, Starz starting at 12 p.m. (ET/PT), will air the first nine-episodes of the second season, as an elongated lead-in to the sophomore-campaign finale. “The Sins of Daedalus” will air immediately following the marathon at 9 p.m. that night.

Starz has renewed the series -- a re-imagining of the life of the Renaissance legend as a young adult -- for a third season.