Could some one ELi5 why series that are made by streaming platforms take so much longer to air than series on cable or Fox, NBC, ABC etc? It seems that every fall season new episodes on those tv stations come out and are aired weekly until perhaps May. But those that are exclusive to streaming providers can take years to air another season of a show.
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Netflix, Amazon etc shows are sort of a bridge between movies and TV shows. It might help to think of them as six or eight hour long movies rather than an episodic TV series.
One difference is the stars. There are still fairly significant differences in TV vs movie actors. Movie actors can take on multiple (large) projects and their time has to be scheduled fairly far in advance. TV stars (regulars) tend to be contracted by season or a couple of seasons.
Filming of TV shows typically are mostly on set and you’ll see repeated use of the same sets (could be a house, school, office or police station etc). This gives the show a visual continuity and allows the storywriters to focus on episodic storytelling. Although not easy, episodic stories are easier to write and a team might write 20-22 episodes a year. The use of sets also saves costs and production time. And each episode has a recurring cast with perhaps one or two guest characters.
Streaming shows tend to focus on a single large complicated multi character story. This is very difficult to write and explains the use of a lot of existing source material like popular books or games. It also reduces a bit of risk since the audience might already be familiar with the characters from the source material (Lord of the Rings, Witcher etc) These shows also have a lot more on location filming (expensive, time consuming) and CGI. It takes a LOT more time to edit and produce a single story to make it flow well over 6-8 hours.
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