A Comment A Friend Made (1 Viewer)

[Stephen Wight]

This past weekend,a friend said something that I thought was interesting,and I thought I'd share it with my fellow HTFers.We were bemoaning(me more so than my friend)why many of our favourite shows were not out,yet,on dvd,and my friend said,and I'm paraphrasing,"The heads of the studios are human,and,as such,have human biases about certain tv shows.Perhaps they didn't like some shows,and don't want them on dvd,and the ones the liked,they'll release".At the time I didn't think much about it,but,thinking about it,now,I'd have to agree.Perhaps it's a bit far feched.Any thoughts?

 

[Bob Hug]

Frankly, I think that it's much more a matter of economics. If a studio believes that it can make money off a certain title, then there's a chance that they'll go ahead and release it. Conversely, if they believe that they are not going to make money, then they probably will not release it. The middle ground seems to be where a studio owns a show and doesn't want to release it, but licenses the show to an independent. A good example of this is "Naked City" which is owned by Sony but released by Image Entertainment, or "Combat!" which is owned by Disney but, again, released by the independent Image. I think that the independents are the way to go for "borderline" shows that the major studios are skittish about releasing.

 

[Marko Berg]

Studio executives wouldn't exactly hold their positions in those companies if all the consideration given to a possible release involved an executive's personal feelings of a TV show. In addition, even if you leave out facts produces by market research etc., the decision-making process certainly involves many people and isn't based on one individual's personal preferences.

By the way, please feel free to hit the space bar every once in a while.

 

[Gord Lacey]

I think higher-ups will try to push something through if it's borderline whether to release it, but I can't see them spending the time and money to get something released that won't sell.

I spoke to someone at one of the studios recently and he said he was very happy about two titles they just announced, saying that he's been trying to get those released for a few years. I said, "It took this long? You're the boss!" His reply, "Yes, but unfortunately there are other people involved.... my staff that work on the titles, and a few million share-holders."

Gord

 

[Mark Talmadge]

It really has nothing to do with that. I don't remember the figures right now but last I heard that sales on TV DVD sets were pretty high. I think that these studios have been releasing even more and more TV DVD sets than in previous years.

It has nothing to do with what the execs like and what they don't like. It's what will sell and I think they alternate between current TV shows and the more classic shows.