Amazon original series to air mostly week-by-week

Amazon is releasing its first two original series, but not all at once.

The online retailing giant says the first three episodes of "Alpha House" will be available for free online and through its mobile and game-console apps on Nov. 15. After that, Amazon.com Inc. will release one episode per week exclusively to subscribers of its $79-a-year free shipping service called Amazon Prime.

It'll follow the same recipe for the release of "Betas" starting Nov. 22.

Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, said in a statement Monday that the schedule is meant to encourage customers to talk about the shows.

Amazon's video service competes with Netflix, which releases an entire season at once of its original shows.

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