CBS Home Video/MOD RIP (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

I don’t think it was a faux pass if that’s what you’re asking, but they’re probably limited in what they’re allowed to discuss.

 

[Pmprod7]

Thanks--I was feeling bad about writing back to them on this issue. I thought she could have found it offensive.

 

[Gary16]

Thanks--I was feeling bad about writing back to them on this issue. I thought she could have found it offensive.

It’s highly possible she no longer is employed there.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

if CBS was smart and they actually wanted CBS all access to be a sucess they would put their catalog on it, but the havent

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It seems like they’re slowly trying to bring stuff home and back to the fold. For example, Frasier (made by Paramount even though it was originally on NBC) used to stream on Amazon Prime and Netflix, and is now on CBS All Access instead. My hope is that they’ll continue adding shows over time until it is one day as complete as possible.

 

[Neil Brock]

It’s highly possible she no longer is employed there.

From what I'm hearing, only a couple of people will still have jobs. Everyone else, including the person responsible for the MOD releases, were let go.

 

[LouA]

Bad news. I was looking forward to more Our miss Brooks , Ben Casey , and whatever else they could throw at us . Just wondering if it's possible they could license those shows and others out to other companies ?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Possible, sure. They could also continue coming out from the new merged entity just with a different logo. Or one day show up on CBS All Access. They have other avenues available to them; I just hope they consider it worthwhile to put it out somewhere.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

Bad news. I was looking forward to more Our miss Brooks , Ben Casey , and whatever else they could throw at us . Just wondering if it's possible they could license those shows and others out to other companies ?

I would hope VEI or Shout! Factory will take over for the second-rate and third-rate titles. Both have done this before, in the case of Webster (Shout!) and stuff like The Immortal, Petrocelli, Angie and The Bad News Bears (VEI).

~Ben

 

[Neil Brock]

VEI has never shown an interest in black and white shows and Shout looks for shows which have a greater sales potential than 40 or 50 year old failed series. And for the record, all of the sub licensing which CBS was aggressive in pushing with outside companies was the work of one person and that person has gotten purged as well.

 

[bmasters9]

I would hope VEI or Shout! Factory will take over for the second-rate and third-rate titles. Both have done this before, in the case of Webster (Shout!) and stuff like The Immortal, Petrocelli, Angie and The Bad News Bears (VEI).

And The Magician, and The Powers of Matthew Star!

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

I still hint that the following might sometime be available on DVD based on being re-ran on TV Land or other cable channels over the years, or connections to the more well-known franchises...
Barefoot in the Park (1970) (last re-ran on TV Land)
Me and the Chimp (1972) (last re-ran on TV Land, during a Garry Marshall tribute marathon)
Paper Moon (1974) (last re-ran on TV Land)
Out of the Blue (1979) (spin-off of Happy Days and Mork & Mindy)
Working Stiffs (1979) (last re-ran on Comedy Central, and also had six out of its nine episodes available on VHS)
Struck by Lightning (1979) (re-ran in PAL transmission countries including the U.K. and Australia)
The Associates (1979-1980) (last re-ran on TV Land; previously re-ran on USA Network)
Goodtime Girls (1980) (last re-ran on TV Land)
Madame's Place (1982-1983) (last re-ran on TV Land; previously re-ran on USA Network)
The Tortellis (1987) (spin-off of Cheers)
Duet (1987-1989) / Open House (1989-1990) (both last re-ran on TV Land and previously re-ran on Lifetime)
Day by Day (1988-1989) (last re-ran on TV Land; previously re-ran on Lifetime)
Dear John (1988-1992)

~Ben

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

I wonder if ViacomCBS wants us to drop DVDs in favor of All Access, at this writing? That is, I wonder if all the DVDs of their classic TV material they have out as of late will be either tripled or quadrupled up in price, to indicate they are moving away from home entertainment and driving us toward their streaming-only plan, to make that their primary business model?

Here is a similar story about how Netflix encouraged us to switch from DVDs to streaming, from nine years before...
https://www.tested.com/tech/tvs/2595-does-netflix-want-users-to-drop-discs-in-favor-of-instant/

I also think they could have found a way to preserve the MOD division, but that the current crop of bigwigs running it said that was not possible, believing that abandoning the MOD service was the only responsible thing for them to do. I do not know how much ViacomCBS lost as a result of that infrastructure, but I do understand not a lot of us were buying DVDs when the program was around.

~Ben

 

[jcroy]

I wonder if ViacomCBS wants us to drop DVDs in favor of All Access, at this writing?

A good "test" to determine whether this is happening quickly, is to see if the final season of Criminal Minds is released on dvd later this year, and whether ViacomCBS continues to release the current NCIS franchise seasons on dvd later this year.

Also one can watch for future dvd season sets releases of other current CBS prime time shows are discontinued, such as:

- the Hawaii Five-0 reboot
- the Magnum PI reboot
- Blue Bloods
- Bull
- SEAL Team
- etc ...

 

[Pmprod7]

I wonder if ViacomCBS wants us to drop DVDs in favor of All Access, at this writing?

~Ben

I really hope that's not the case. CBS All Access doesn't have any of the specialty old short-lived shows that can only be concentrated on in the MOD DVD format. They have a limited collection of present shows and the popular old shows that have had longer runs. It doesn't look like they have any interest in the type older shows we want to see be put on streaming.

I don't know if Paramount Home Video is going to have a continuing deal with Allied Vaughn at the Movie Zyng company.
If only they would put out news of their intentions for the buying public to know what their choices are on the MOD front.

I just read an online Variety article posted January 2, 2020 that says the presidents and executive vice presidents of Paramount Home Entertainment , Sony Home Entertainment , Warner Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment say they're not giving up on discs and that streaming and physical media can co-exist. I hope that extends to the MOD TV shows division for each one.

 

[DeWilson]

I find it highly unlike the would stop doing DVD of the current TV series - they still sell well and generate revenue.

I think what is going on is what it clearly is - the combination of two redundant departments at a combined ViacomCBS.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

In the context of the wider industry, Warner and Universal are merging their home video departments. That two major labels are combining because there aren’t enough new sales to justify each company having its own division is an alarming trend. That CBS and Paramount are consolidating their operation as opposed to just abandoning it is about as hopeful and positive as a gesture as we could probably ask for given the current state of things.

I wonder how bad the sales figures have been for the CBS MOD line.

 

[ClassicTVMan1981X]

In the context of the wider industry, Warner and Universal are merging their home video departments. That two major labels are combining because there aren’t enough new sales to justify each company having its own division is an alarming trend. That CBS and Paramount are consolidating their operation as opposed to just abandoning it is about as hopeful and positive as a gesture as we could probably ask for given the current state of things.

I wonder how bad the sales figures have been for the CBS MOD line.

I too wish to know how much debt they accumulated from this MOD thing, and from these sub-licensing deals.

~Ben

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The positive for MOD is that at least you don’t have a warehouse full of unused stock that no one wants to buy. When you see complete series box sets from CBS of shows that ran for years and years selling for under $50, that’s usually not about making tons of money. That’s usually about, they pressed up tons more discs than they needed way back when, and are now just trying to get rid of them. So at least MOD doesn’t give you that problem.

But even if you’re doing MOD and even if you’re using only existing tape masters and not doing any new film transfers, you’ve still got to pay someone to digitize those tapes, compress/author the content into a format that can be burned onto a disc, and then pay for all of the infrastructure needed to store all of that data. There are certain fixed costs you can’t get rid of and if sales figures dip below that, there’s nowhere left to cut expenses other than shutting the thing down.

In a more perfect world, older titles that their owners had no interest or ability to exploit would lose copyright protection after a more reasonable amount of time so that someone else could take a crack at it if they were willing to put the work in.

 

[jcroy]

I just read an online Variety article posted January 2, 2020 that says the presidents and executive vice presidents of Paramount Home Entertainment , Sony Home Entertainment , Warner Home Entertainment and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment say they're not giving up on discs and that streaming and physical media can co-exist.

https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/home-entertainment-2020-outlook-streaming-1203454629/