Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - Between-Release Nervousness

Gord Lacey · 02-06-2004, 10:37 PM

Casey, brilliant post, I couldn't have said it better.

Glenn, there are fixed costs for a title that probably won't change if you're doing 1 million sets, or 10,000. These include: music licensing, restoration (if needed), film transfer, encoding, authoring, menus, subtitles, bonus features. Then you have your per-set costs like replication and packaging. Unfortunately those fixed costs are budgeted with the expectation that they will sell a certain number of copies. If that doesn't happen then they need to cut back on the fixed costs, and if they can't do that then the next season doesn't come out.

Fox has stated that they've found sales of a season 1 set usually stay consistant throughout the life of the series, so they have a fairly good idea where they stand. MTM season 1 sales were low and no season 2 set has come out. Unfortunately another Fox title with an obvious change to it was "NYPD Blue." Yes, it made it to a second season, but how many of you noticed that the sound wasn't Dolby Digital 4.0 like the first set? Uh oh...that's a sign of trouble. Season 3 isn't currently scheduled...draw your own conclusions.

The fact is that most of the people that want a title will buy it in the first few months that it's out. It's like a news item that we post to our site; it's read the most in the first few days because that's when it's new. It's very important to buy the set when it's first released because you're supporting the continuation of the series. As Casey pointed out, waiting for the entire series to be released on DVD before you start buying the first set will only ensure that there's only ever 1 season of a series. The effect that TVShowsOnDVD.com and petitions have on studios is a 1-shot deal - we can only get them to consider starting to release a series. There's no way I could convince a studio to support a show they've lost money on. That's like trying to convince someone to stick their finger in a socket after they've just been electrocuted; you only have 1 chance to do it, then the experience speaks for itself and they have to choose to continue or walk away. I think having 1 season of a show on DVD is better than nothing, isn't it?

This is about money - it needs to be there for these companies to release something, or to continue doing so.

Gord

02-06-2004, 10:37 PM	#6 of 60
Gord Lacey TV Shows On DVD Join Date: Jan 2001 Local Time: 05:17 PM Local Date: 12-04-2008 Posts: 2,473	Casey, brilliant post, I couldn't have said it better. Glenn, there are fixed costs for a title that probably won't change if you're doing 1 million sets, or 10,000. These include: music licensing, restoration (if needed), film transfer, encoding, authoring, menus, subtitles, bonus features. Then you have your per-set costs like replication and packaging. Unfortunately those fixed costs are budgeted with the expectation that they will sell a certain number of copies. If that doesn't happen then they need to cut back on the fixed costs, and if they can't do that then the next season doesn't come out. Fox has stated that they've found sales of a season 1 set usually stay consistant throughout the life of the series, so they have a fairly good idea where they stand. MTM season 1 sales were low and no season 2 set has come out. Unfortunately another Fox title with an obvious change to it was "NYPD Blue." Yes, it made it to a second season, but how many of you noticed that the sound wasn't Dolby Digital 4.0 like the first set? Uh oh...that's a sign of trouble. Season 3 isn't currently scheduled...draw your own conclusions. The fact is that most of the people that want a title will buy it in the first few months that it's out. It's like a news item that we post to our site; it's read the most in the first few days because that's when it's new. It's very important to buy the set when it's first released because you're supporting the continuation of the series. As Casey pointed out, waiting for the entire series to be released on DVD before you start buying the first set will only ensure that there's only ever 1 season of a series. The effect that TVShowsOnDVD.com and petitions have on studios is a 1-shot deal - we can only get them to consider starting to release a series. There's no way I could convince a studio to support a show they've lost money on. That's like trying to convince someone to stick their finger in a socket after they've just been electrocuted; you only have 1 chance to do it, then the experience speaks for itself and they have to choose to continue or walk away. I think having 1 season of a show on DVD is better than nothing, isn't it? This is about money - it needs to be there for these companies to release something, or to continue doing so. Gord Want to see your favorite show on DVD?