Mark Talmadge
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 2,379
What is the deal with studios these days? For a very long time, studios were happy enough to release all of our favourite shows as season sets. Now, these self-same studios have begun releasing television shows in volume sets, breaking up one season so that they can profit more from their boxed set releases.
It's bad enough that most of us have rather extensive DVD libraries when it comes to television shows. The last we need is for studios to to break up season sets into volume releases in an attempt to make more profit for the studios.
These studios are risking a lot on this strategy by angering fans of these television shows, because, believe it or not, there are a lot of people who aren't willing to spend an arm and a leg for a complete season. If you waltz into a Best Buy, usually the retail set for a Magnum P.I. season set will run you around $45-50 where it has a MSRP of $60. But, when a studio breaks up a season set, they drop that price by $10 and end up stiffing fans with no bonus feartures, such as commentaries, deleted scenes, behind the scenes and whatnot and just offer a bare bones set, consisting of 12 episodes. It's hard to believe that studios cannot fit 22-26 episodes in a complete season set.
This is the main reason why I have not and will not EVER purchase a television show when the seasons are broken up in half, just because studios want to gouge fans on the price.
I don't know about anyone here, but if the studios continue on their reckless path I'll just stop buying DVD sets outright and resort to downloading them from Rapidshare websites and burning them to blank DVD-r's.
Now, before anyone starts complaining, bear in mind that I have spent over ten grand on DVD boxed sets so it's not like I don't support the industry. I'd rather buy the real deal, but these studios need to understand that fans are tired of being shafted by their DVD releases and not receiving the benefit from 'halved sets.' If you break the sets up to save money or make more profits, then pass those savings onto the consumer. The consumer drives the studios profits, if you anger the consumer, then you anger your profit margin and word of mouth among consumers is the worst thing a company can get.
For me? Everytime I see a consumer about to purchase a volume set, I go out of my way to encourage them not to and explain to them that they are actually paying over-inflated prices for as much as it costs for a full season set and most of the time, they pass on their initial purchase. I consider it my civic duty to discourage the continuing support of these studios and their deceptive practices.
If a season set costs a MSRP of $60, then drop the MSRP by half if the studio releases a half season set, it's only fair to the consumer who supports the studio. With Battlestar Galactica? Season 3 was $60 MSRP. However, do you think that Universal will drop the MSRP for Season 4.0 to $30 for the MSRP? No, they won't. They'll drop it to either $40 or $50.
It's bad enough that most of us have rather extensive DVD libraries when it comes to television shows. The last we need is for studios to to break up season sets into volume releases in an attempt to make more profit for the studios.
These studios are risking a lot on this strategy by angering fans of these television shows, because, believe it or not, there are a lot of people who aren't willing to spend an arm and a leg for a complete season. If you waltz into a Best Buy, usually the retail set for a Magnum P.I. season set will run you around $45-50 where it has a MSRP of $60. But, when a studio breaks up a season set, they drop that price by $10 and end up stiffing fans with no bonus feartures, such as commentaries, deleted scenes, behind the scenes and whatnot and just offer a bare bones set, consisting of 12 episodes. It's hard to believe that studios cannot fit 22-26 episodes in a complete season set.
This is the main reason why I have not and will not EVER purchase a television show when the seasons are broken up in half, just because studios want to gouge fans on the price.
I don't know about anyone here, but if the studios continue on their reckless path I'll just stop buying DVD sets outright and resort to downloading them from Rapidshare websites and burning them to blank DVD-r's.
Now, before anyone starts complaining, bear in mind that I have spent over ten grand on DVD boxed sets so it's not like I don't support the industry. I'd rather buy the real deal, but these studios need to understand that fans are tired of being shafted by their DVD releases and not receiving the benefit from 'halved sets.' If you break the sets up to save money or make more profits, then pass those savings onto the consumer. The consumer drives the studios profits, if you anger the consumer, then you anger your profit margin and word of mouth among consumers is the worst thing a company can get.
For me? Everytime I see a consumer about to purchase a volume set, I go out of my way to encourage them not to and explain to them that they are actually paying over-inflated prices for as much as it costs for a full season set and most of the time, they pass on their initial purchase. I consider it my civic duty to discourage the continuing support of these studios and their deceptive practices.
If a season set costs a MSRP of $60, then drop the MSRP by half if the studio releases a half season set, it's only fair to the consumer who supports the studio. With Battlestar Galactica? Season 3 was $60 MSRP. However, do you think that Universal will drop the MSRP for Season 4.0 to $30 for the MSRP? No, they won't. They'll drop it to either $40 or $50.