what is involved in restoring a tv show ? (1 Viewer)

[jimmyjet]

is this really all that complicated of a process ?
the studios tell us they only do one season at a time, to see if it sells.
i suspect that is 100% bogus. i think the only reason for doing this is to see how many times they can get us to pay for one show.
does it really take 5 times as long to do 5 seasons as it does to do 1 season ?
why not just take one show at a time, put it out complete, and do it right the first time ?
the industry is so full of bad releases, that no wonder people dont want to buy anything until they know they can get a good complete copy.
they dont get a penny from me until they do so.
if the industry had a better reputation, i suspect that just about any show would make profit for them.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

Well, that would depend on the TV show, wouldn't it?
I Love Lucy had to be remastered, and bits of 16mm prints inserted into the 35mm masters to restore the show to the way it was originally broadcast.
Star Trek: TNG for blu ray requires all the 35mm film footage to be found, cleaned up, then the show has to be re-edited to match the broadcast episodes and special effects work done where needed.

 

[jimmyjet]

i dont know.
that is why i was asking.
how much of it is automated ?
there have been too many instances of them putting out a season at a time, only to put out a complete series, with some extras.
sorry, i see it mainly as a scam.
there have been times when complete series have come out at once.
why not all the time ?
which again begs my original question.
how many, if any, shows would cost them more than they could make ?
they have to do it only once, if done correctly, versus the possibly hundreds of millions of people worldwide that are possible buyers ?
gosh, we should be considering this as a project to preserve these shows before the original film starts deteriorating.

 

[TravisR]

there have been times when complete series have come out at once.
why not all the time ?

There's only a handful of shows that are guaranteed sellers and the studios, like every business in the world, want to make as much money as possible so splitting those sure things up into seasons makes them more money. However, not every show is guaranteed to sell so if they release an entire series at one time and it flops, they now have a high priced poor selling box set that they wasted time and money on. If they just release the first season and it doesn't sell, at least they don't waste time and money on another 4 or 5 or 6 years of the same poor selling show. Plus, at a $100 or $200 price tag for a series set, you're going to turn off everyone but the most ardent fan. A price of $25 or $30 for one season is going to look alot more attractive to most customers than spending a big amount at one time.

 

[jimmyjet]

i think that almost every show is apt to sell.
for instance, what box sets of complete series, did not sell ?
did they actually lose money ? or just not make as much as they had hoped ?
and for what reasons did they not sell ?
when i go to amazon, i always look at the reviews. so let's limit the non-sellers to those that had good reviews. i think you will be hard-pressed to come up with many, if any.
most of us dont want to be nickeled and dimed.
the people who are already interested, want the complete series almost exclusively.
for those who arent familiar, then sure - buy 1 season and try it out.
if the studio produces the whole series, they have the best of both worlds.
they can sell it by the series, and sell it by the season, and give the consumer the choice.
i know most of the old shows. but i know very little about shows from the past 30 years.
so for a show that i dont know about, here is what i do.
first, i go to wiki and read about it. that gives me a pretty good idea on a general level.
i then proceed to amazon to look at the reviews.
most shows have clips that can be viewed on youtube. so it the show has passed the wiki test, and the amazon test, i do a looksie.
i dont buy any show, unless it is complete. either i want it all or nothing.
now that i am viewing it at a later point, i can see it chronologically from beginning to end, in a short frame of time (at least shorter than the 6 years it may have run).
even with some of my favorite shows, i have gotten a better and more inclusive viewpoint on the show, the character development, etc.
and if it is a show that has been restored from its original film, then i am also viewing it in much better quality than i ever did when it was originally aired on tv.
all, or almost all, original film has better resolution than what was aired.
anyways, thanks for your input.

 

[TravisR]

i think that almost every show is apt to sell.

I guess that's true to some degree but for the studios to release a show, they need to think that it will sell well enough for them to make a certain amount of money from it. I don't know if that desired amount is reasonable or unreasonable (though I'd be willing to guess that there's times when it's a completely unreasonable) but it's the way that it works and it isn't going to change.

did they actually lose money ? or just not make as much as they had hoped ?

Losing money and not making as much as they hoped might as well be the same thing because they both result in the same thing- no more releases.

i dont buy any show, unless it is complete. either i want it all or nothing.

That's your choice but if you choose to not buy the individual seasons then you can't complain if they don't continue releasing the show. Everyone here knows that sales mean everything so those that choose to wait for a series set know that they run the risk of contributing to the lack of sales that stall shows.

 

[derosa]

Generally speaking, the "season set" came about in an era when the market for dvd's was strong,
and several factors made it a kind of standard, or expected format.
The shows in a current run would be released at the end of the season that aired on TV. The studios didn't wait
until a show went off the air, there was demand from fans to buy the season set when it came out.
Older shows were an experiment, some sold well, others didn't. For various reasons, this may have been the
case that fans didn't buy a show because the material was poorly prepared for DVD with cuts to music or
syndication prints, etc. But it seems the studios looked to consistent sales of season sets to evaluate the
consumer demand.
One reason for this is that the business model is one to keep revenue flowing. It's not preferred for companies
to have one huge seller, and then nothing. They like the sales to keep rolling. Season sets that they could put
on the release schedule and have many titles on the calendar was a business decision, also related to price.
Back when they were getting $50 a season, multi-season shows were deemed too expensive for mass retail
sales that would cost hundreds of dollars. The individual season seemed like a reasonable compromise.
But as you pointed out, the number of poorly done sets, and half-abandonded seasons poisoned the fans
view of the system, and some people stopped buying until complete, or well-reviewed sets came out,
often at a discount to buying the individual seasons. It became an incentive to just wait.
It does seem that with dropping DVD sales, there are now more complete sets being released, and at lower prices.
Obviously the studios have had to respond to the market, and what consumers are looking for in order to pry
some spending from fans that likely already have a lot more DVD's in their collection than 10 or 15 years ago,
and don't have as many titles on their wish list.

 

[Greg Chenoweth]

The other factor in all of this is the need for the studios to make a profit AND THIS IS A A GOOD THING. If a season set or a complete series set recovers the costs involved to remaster, package, market, retail and sell it, then it is turning a profit. A certain profit margin on the sets is needed in order for the set to be deemed profitable. The consequence of the profit margin is huge. If there is profit from a set, then it can be put in the pot to allow other sets to be made and sold. If there is no profit, or hardly any profit, then there is no money to be used to make other sets. For a retail business which I work at, we need to make 30% gross profit just to be able to open the doors in the morning. This 30% gross profit is responsible for the samples in the showroom, pay staff, provide health insurance, pay the rent and utilities and all other expenses just to make the business run. Anything above that 30% gross profit is what can be put back into the business to provide for pay raises, future displays and repairs on equipment. Sometimes we are selling items at a 40% gross profit, that means that just 10% of the selling price is left over to put back into the business; that's not much.
When you see these box sets selling at 30% off or 35% off on Amazon.com it is being lowballed in order to generate the most sales for the first week of the release. After that, the price of the set goes up a little bit. Interest is a little lower and Amazon will start to pocket more money from each sale. The manufacturer has to make a certain gross profit on the product as well in order to continue making more sets. If the costs are high, the price has to be higher or they will bite the bullet and sell it for less with the hopes that they will recoup their money through good sales.
It is a simple matter of economics: there must be a demand in order to manufacture a product. If there is little demand, then it will cost more or it won't be made at all. There are two ways to gauge demand: interest shown in the product and the sales that result from selling the product.

 

[jimmyjet]

good post guys,
i am gonna stick with my philosophy - not buying until well-reviewed complete sets are available.
i think that the "we did not make enough money" is basically a bogus way to get us to buy expensive sets by the season.
it certainly has many people "scared" that they wont release if they dont buy.
but i would ask you to reconsider that point of view for what i think is a more accurate one.
if we dont buy until we have good complete seasons, then what are they gonna sell us ?
do you think they will bypass sales altogether ?
they make money on the dang things. they just dont want us to know.
i fully expect them to produce the shows first that they expect will bring in the most profit.
and i will buy most stuff, if it sounds like it has a good plot. i can always sell it on the used market if i truly dislike it enough that i dont want it in my collection.
for example, i already know that i dont want stupid stuff like buffy and the vampire killer, so i wont buy it.
i will die with stuff in my collection that i have not had the time to view, so i certainly am not gonna add to it anything that is not complete and done well.
the more of us that take this point of view, the better quality we force the studios to produce. just look at the sincere effort that cbs just did with the fugitive.
capitalism at its finest.

 

[jimmyjet]

i forgot to add - a devils advocate viewpoint on "the amount of profit needed" post.
the expenditure on the show occurs once. sales continue forever.
so even if the show made less than expected during its release, it is still something that will make them profit year after year.
and the bigger that inventory, the more profit they can make from just their inventory.
if a big studio sold their entire rights to their complete inventory, just how much do you think someone would need to pay for it ?
almost certainly tens of millions. possibly lots more, depending on the size of the inventory.
the reason it would cost a lot, is because it GENERATES A LOT OF INCOME.