Dynasty S3 - two families to two volumes.. Bah Humbug Paramount! (1 Viewer)

[TravisR]

If it had sold well, they wouldn't be splitting the seasons up.

 

[Ben King]

No. The "split a season into two volumes" seems to be becoming standard practice with Paramount for archive TV - it's happening with the *first* seasons of The Love Boat, The Mod Squad, The Streets of San Francisco, The Fugitive etc. so actual sales figures are not a factor.

Basically, Paramount can release Dynasty any way they see fit. I won't be buying any volumes until a complete season is available.

 

[ScottHM]

There are many things I'd like to have that I'm unwilling to buy at unreasonable prices. We all have priorities, and one of mine is to not get robbed by Paramount.

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[Jason Seaver]

Maybe actual sales of the specific shows aren't a factor, but sales of older series in general probably are.

 

[Ben King]

Still an utterly brain-dead way of releasing a serial, as opposed to a series of self-contained episodes.

 

[brett tolino]

I agree with you Ben.

This seems to be Paramount's Method of Operations now. They have done it for Mod Squad, Love Boat and a couple of others. Mod Squad and Love Boat are in 1st seasons so I doubt sales have anything to do with it.

Frankly, it's a step backwards and I don't care what anyone says, I'm not buying any series split released in a volume set.

Not one.

Some people have said we should be happy we're getting it at all.

No, not really.

Because Dynasty isn't an ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE for me. Sure, I would add it to my collection if the price and package were right but I can live without it. I've lived without Dynasty Season 3 or Love Boat or Mod Squad or any other Paramount show on dvd for, well, all my life and I've survived.

If this was becoming a model for the dvd industry as a whole, I'd give it more consideration but this is a Paramount thing. When they began releasing I Love Lucy by volume, I bought it despite my reservations because they take up WAY too much space. Then they released it complete, seasonally. At that time, I Sold my Volume sets and bought the Season sets, reducing the shelf space by over 1/2.

Paramount is going backwards, not forwards. And the Volume treatment must not be going well because over the holidays, I saw tons and tons and tons of Mod Squad Volume 1 warming every shelves in every store I shoped in -- and that's WITH holiday shopping and holiday prices. Some may say that the demand for the show may not be sufficent but demand is only 1/2 the equation. Pricing is more or less the other half and quality / quantity of what you're getting for your money is the other. The price is not right. I'm not getting my money's worth for what they're charging so I'll pass on their product.

So, people can say we should be glad we're getting Dynasty S3 V1 all they want. What they forget is that the studios need the consumers, not the other way around.

I can live without Paramount product... especially when there's so much out there put out by other companies who AREN'T doing volume sets. I'll just spend my money on their products.

And I'll live just fine.

 

[David Levine]

But Season 2 did NOT do OK in sales. In fact, I'm stunned Paramount is even trying to save it by cutting MSRP and releasing volumes. I would've thought that there was no chance for a Season 3. Paramount should be commended for trying.

 

[brett tolino]

You say Dynasty Season 2 did not do well in sales at all.

Pls back up your statement with factual sales data.

 

[David Levine]

I'll pass. It's not my place to post actual sales numbers - that's why I stick to "generalities".

You can choose to believe me or not. I'm just trying to give some insight into why studios do certain things and to counter all the misinformation and theorys that fly around.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Yeah, but You Are Not A Representative Sample (tm). You might think about shelf space and calculate the cost-per-episode and plan your purchasing ahead of time, but a great many potential customers don't. Many of them are looking at the shelves in Best Buy, saying "hey, Dynasty! I liked Dynasty! Maybe I'll get this." Then they look at the price tag, and decide that $35 is too much to spend on that particular bit of nostalgia.

It's arguably because Dynasty falls into the "like it, don't need it" category for many people that Paramount is splitting it in two. Even if the actual bang-for-buck is lower, a sub-$20 shelf price gets a lot more impulse purchases than a greater-than-$20 one does. And a title that doesn't have the same sort of cachet or devoted fanbase of other shows lives and dies by the impulse buy.

 

[TravisR]

Yes, that seems to be their new method of releasing older shows but they do it so they can lower the price and hopefully sell more copies at that lower price. And if they just had a widespread decree to release older shows in volumes rather than in season sets than Mission: Impossible would start getting split up too. However, Mission: Impossible must be selling at $40 or $50 a set while Dynasty did not.

I know some people will still refuse to believe what I and others are saying but that's their choice.

EDIT: Hawaii Five-O and The Odd Couple are two more examples of older shows still coming out in season sets from Paramount so they must continue to sell at their price too.

 

[David Levine]

Exactly.

The average consumer is more likely to spend $20.00 twice than $35.00 once. Sub 20.00 is considered low-risk or impulse. Anything over that magic number tends to cause much more consideration.

 

[Ben King]

It all depends on how fast "Season 3, Volume 2" comes out. If we're talking within 6-8 weeks, then fair enough.

If it's going to be around 4-6 months, then I can't see any casual buyer actually staying interested enough to bother picking up the following releases.

As far as I'm aware, sales for season 2 were actually significantly stronger than those for the Joan Collins and Heather Locklear-less first season released by Fox.

 

[Jason Seaver]

It's not so much about "staying interested" as it's about finding it a good value when they see it. As in "hey, I liked the 11 episodes of Dynasty! I bought three/four/six months ago; I'll spend $20 on another 11".

 

[Richard Michael Clark]

I thought they got it right with Season 2 (nice unfussy compact packaging and personally got a good online pre-order price) so I think it's a shame they have to start messing around again!
I understand the market related reasons as noted in posts above but I would still much prefer complete seasons and I think most people would.
That said if they get Season 3 vol 2 out very soon after vol 1 I won't mind so much but there's still really no proper reason to mess around like this.

 

[Duane Alford]

The problem here is these half season volumes aren't going for $20 in the stores. I was at Best Buy tonight and saw Season 1 Volume 1 of The Mod Squad selling for $35. That means it'll cost $70 for all of season 1 (that's if they bother releasing volume 2) which is an absolute ripoff. $35 for half seasons, is it any wonder no one buys them? Me, I'd rather spend more to get the complete season. Even if it's a blind buy, I'd rather blindly get a complete season then just half.

 

[Ben King]

Quite. I'd be interested to see what the price point really is for the Dynasty volumes.

I suspect season 3 will be the last of Dynasty on DVD.

 

[Ben King]

Depends entirely on the price point these volumes will sell at.

 

[Ben King]

I've just looked at Amazon:

Dynasty Season 2 sells at RRP - $38.99 for 22 episodes

The two volumes of The Streets Of San Francisco - 14 episodes on volume 1, 13 on volume 2 - RRP $38.99 EACH.

The Fugitive - volume 1 (15 episodes) sells for $38.99, volume 2 (to be released in February) has a RRP of $36.98.

The Mod Squad - volume 1 - 13 episodes at RRP $38.99.

Volume 2 (out next March) - 13 episodes at RRP $38.99

Love, American Style - Volume 1 - 12 episodes at RRP $31.99

Volume 2 (out in March) - $35.98.

The Love Boat - Season 1, Volume 1 - 12 episodes for $36.99.

Which rather blows Travis R, Joe Karlosi, Jason Seaver and David Levine's arguments completely out of the water.

Paramount have decided they want to make more money out of Dynasty by splitting the seasons - and it will undoubtedly blow up in their faces.

 

[Joe Karlosi]

Ah, that'll show 'em!
And who do you think will be losing out? You - you're the only one.
So it makes more sense to not buy a show you want at all, just because of how it's packaged or how many episodes appear per volume?