I understand and appreciate their right to do whatever they want to with it, but with perhaps very few exceptions, I can't imagine how you can justify not giving away the first few episodes as a loss-leader for people to actually get hooked on something.

If I can't see the first episode, the chances of me 'jumping-on' are effectively nil, and I'm certainly not going to pay for something I don't love and haven't seen.

Perhaps I'm not the average user, and I'm perfectly willing to accept that. And again, it's not like I don't respect their rights to do whatever the hell they want, it just doesn't make sense to me. Ultimately, there's not a TV show or movie that I can't live without seeing, but not ever letting me see your show isn't a way to maximize profits, at least from me.