Everyone, it seems, had an opinion about Woody Allen signing a deal recently with Amazon to produce a TV series for its video-streaming service.

Some praised Amazon for aligning with one of America’s most celebrated creative figures. Others worried about the fallout from sexual-abuse allegations levied in 1993 by Allen’s daughter, Dylan Farrow, which boiled to the surface again last year.

Some simply were concerned about what Allen had to offer Amazon, given there were precious few details about the deal. Allen even joked about that in his statement accompanying the announcement: “I don’t know how I got into this. I have no ideas, and I’m not sure where to begin.”

But what is certain is that Allen agreeing to do television is one of the most dramatic indications of the growing allure of TV to filmdom’s creative class, which once considered television a lower life form.

The 79-year-old filmmaker has been cranking out theatrical releases at the rate of about one a year since he directed “Take the Money and Run” in 1969. Along the way he has turned out an Oscar-winning Best Picture — “Annie Hall” in 1977 — and been nominated for Oscars 24 times, winning four, most recently in 2012.

Big-name actors have been flocking to television for some time, but now they are being joined by noted directors — the types of auteurs who might have felt limited by TV’s structure and smaller screen.

Allen joins an ever-growing list of notable feature-film directors who have come — or come back — to television in the past couple of years. Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher and David Lynch have TV projects airing or in the works. The Directors Guild of America’s annual awards nominees for TV episodes included feature-film directors Jodie Foster and Mike Judge.

There are a few reasons for Hollywood’s changing view of television, foremost among them the growth of premium channels and streaming services that offer commercial-free, uncensored formats. HBO and Showtime have been joined by Netflix, Amazon, Cinemax, Starz, Epix and others in creating original content.

Those outlets sell subscriptions, not advertising, so they focus on higher-quality fare for which viewers will pay a premium. They will also package series in a variety of sizes, from two-episode miniseries to open-ended projects of 13 episodes a year, but generally none require the long-term commitment of a 23-episodes-a-year broadcast series. That has allowed TV series to become more movielike, focusing on an ongoing story that, although longer than a feature film, is not boundless.

As a result, the channels have developed a reputation for letting artists have great freedom. Showtime President David Nevins discussed the return of “Twin Peaks” with critics this month and made it clear Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost had control of the project.

Nevins described his role as “more or less writing checks and leaving them alone.”

And the advent of high-definition and larger screens has increased the emphasis on visuals, which makes TV a more rewarding undertaking for directors. Before HDTV, dialogue was the main driver of a television episode. Now, the camera can take a bigger role. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” has so much visual sizzle that it will be shown in iMax theaters to promote the coming season.

And so Allen steps into this now-fertile ground to take on his first TV series. His outlook? “My guess is that (Amazon Studios Chief) Roy Price will regret this.”