What in blazes is Paramount doing?? (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

TNN (The Black Bar Channel Morons) paid a fortune for syndication rights to The Next Generation episodes, and now Paramount is releasing all 7 or whatever seasons on DVD in less than a year.

"A fortune" is overstating it. They paid Paramount a lot of money, but that just involves shifting money from one pocket of Viacom to another, so it's not as much as it appears. Also, they got it as part of a package with DS9 and Voyager, and they're paying significantly less than the various local stations did back when TNG third-run episodes were newly available.

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Quote:

Only in recent times. 13 or 26 were often the magic numbers. 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' had 13 shows to a "season". 'Doctor Who' began life in 1963 as a mammoth 42-episode run, but by the Seventies 26 episodes was a standard "season". That went down to 14 episodes in the mid-Eighties. 'Blake's 7' episodes were twice the length, so not surprisingly had 13 episodes to a "season".
Nowadays, the funding just isn't there for that sort of run, especially for drama.

 

[John_Berger]

they got it as part of a package with DS9 and Voyager

Hold the presses! TNN also has the rights to DS9 and Voyager? I'm in the minority who are aching to see DS9 in reruns! What are they waiting for?

 

[Jason Seaver]

They're waiting for the current syndication deals to expire. For DS9, that might be this fall (or next); for "Voyager", something like 2004 or 2005.

 

[John Berggren]

They are waiting for their authorization to kick in. Though they have the rights to both additional series, neither kicked in at the same time as TNG. It'll probably be another year for DS9, and a couple or more for Voyager.

By the time they get DS9 out the gate though, you can watch them all on DVD in 5.1 rather than on TNN with 8% screen squeeze.

 

[John_Berger]

They're waiting for the current syndication deals to expire. For DS9, that might be this fall (or next); for "Voyager", something like 2004 or 2005.

Am I to assume that Paramount is also waiting for the Next Gen DVDs to be finished until they start releasing DS9 on DVD? Then again, do they even have any plans of putting DS9 on DVD???

 

[John Berggren]

DS9 Season 1 will likely ship by March, if not May of 2003. It will not arrive until after TNG Season 7 ships. Voyager will likely follow suit one year later.

 

[todd s]

Those black bars do more to keep me from watching a syndicated show then the show coming out on dvd.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

John Berger

If Mechanicsburg is served by Philadelphia stations, Fox-29 airs DS9 (in order!) at 4AM weekdays and on Sunday 3AM-5AM. Set that TiVO/VCR

Weekdays are about 1/3 of the way thru Season 5, weekends are mid-Season 1

 

[John_Berger]

If Mechanicsburg is served by Philadelphia stations, Fox-29 airs DS9 (in order!) at 4AM weekdays and on Sunday 3AM-5AM. Set that TiVO/VCR

Nope. We get WB17 WPHL. No one in this area has DS9. That's okay since I have the vast majority of episodes on VHS from when it was on first-run.
DVDs would be much nicer, though.

 

[Steven_J_H]

I still have my incomplete set of DS9 on laserdisc. I also hope DS9 comes out on dvd.