Why 6 months between DVD season? (1 Viewer)

[JamesSmith]

Dear Guys:

Does anyone know if there is a specific reason why the studios picked approximately 6 months between releasing the next season on various multi season sets. For example, Mission Impossible and Hawaii 5-0 season 6's came out this month, and if they follow true to form season 7 will out in October/November.

When the Star Trek: Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager series came out on digital, they put one season out a month, but for most of the best selling shows--it's been half a year. Any guesses why?

James Smith

 

[Jeff Willis]

If you're talking CBS/P sets, maybe there's a 6-mo pattern but there's a lot of inconsistancy in the TV/DVD release business. Take Sony, for example, and that 4-yr wait between Barney Miller S1 & S2. But to answer your question about the CBS/P schedules, my guess is that they wait to retrieve adequate sales # data to determine future releases and/or the 6-mo time period may be tied to their mfg schedules in some way.

 

[derosa]

I think it's about spreading their sales out over the next few years,
so the revenue is steady. If they released all the good stuff all at once,
what would they sell next year? This is based on the premise that it seems
the majority of people only buy dvd's very close to the time they were
released.

The fact that there is a huge catalog of product available doesn't
appear to generate sales. People buy product based on the marketing of
it being "new". That forces the studios to be constantly pushing titles as
new releases in order to sell them. If they released a series all at once,
it's only new for a very short period of time, and after that, there is no
interest from the stores to stock it, or the consumers to buy it, it's just
another title on the shelf. It's sad really.

-g

 

[Jason_V]

TOS boxsets occurred with the Voyager releases. Enterprise was also released in the same year in 2005 (a bad move, IMHO, which helped the series die).

The every month/every other month pattern simply doesn't work. People do not have enough time between one release and the next to watch all the episodes. Further, not everyone can afford $100 a pop (at the time) in that same time frame.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Wish my favorites came out every six moinths. I have a habit....a bad one....of collecting stalled sets. I board a ship that takes me half way across the ocean. When I'm aboard an air plane I prepare myself to get off at my destination only to have the pilot tell me to watch my first step because they're not landing there. I need Dorothy's red shoes. Gotta make a wish that'll really come true.

 

[Shane D]

i wish after a season went off broadcast the dvds would be out in 3-4 weeks instead of months.

i missed most of how i met your mother and big bang theory this year, now that they are over this year i'd love for dvds of this year to be out by the end of may

 

[Jason_V]

It's designed as a cross promotion with the new television season. If you can put the DVD of HIMYM or TBBT on the shelf three weeks before the new season debuts, you can create awareness of it.

 

[changa]

Just be grateful,they are not distributed by Warner Brothers.
The "treatment" with their classic tv shows from 1955-1963 is "criminal".

 

[Mike*SC]

It's to give each season and the people buying them a little "breathing room." Most non-fanatics won't spend $35-$50 each month for a series (it adds up quickly), especially since, unless you're mainlining the episodes, it will take more than a month to watch them all. The idea is to give each season a little time in the new release section, let people enjoy them and get through the episodes, and then tempt them with a new season. Here, we know the street dates for the next season of our favorite shows, but in general, people discover them in stores or online and buy them. The studios don't want them suddenly realizing season six is out and they haven't even watched all of season four!

Of course, the six months thing is not a hard-and-fast rule, and it's based on typical trends, not absolute science. A series like the "Star Trek" shows, with twenty-nine seasons among them and a rabid fan base (it's dwindled, to be sure, but the core that remains is big on DVD ownership), is an exception to the rule of thumb, because at six months between seasons it would take fifteen years to get through all of them!

 

[JamesSmith]

It's to give each season and the people buying them a little "breathing room." Most non-fanatics won't spend $35-$50 each month"

Who are these "non-fanatics" of whom you speak?

James

 

[Mike*SC]

Weirdos. You don't want to know them.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

JamesSmith, you have got it all wrong.

Most everyone should be able to back this up, but when Paramount Studios would announce that Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, TNG or Voyager was placed on the schedule for release, the releases for their season sets for each Star Trek series was placed on a bi-monthly status. Each season set was released every other month.

As far as studios like 20th Century Fox, they have always had that policy to release season sets every six months. That was so that they could gauge how well the sets sold before releasing the next one. There was a lot of frustration, especially when they were releasing the M*A*S*H series to DVD because of the fact that they took forever to release the whole series, something in the neighborhood of six years to release all 11 seasons.

Other studios would release a season set every three months, as we have seen with shows like Magnum P.I., A-Team, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie.

It just all depends on the studio and on the popularity of the TV series they are releasing.