AfterDawn: News

Studios repackaging TV DVDs in complete series sets

As DVD sales continue to fall and Hollywood executives struggle to find new ways to sell more discs, they've started repackaging TV show discs in box sets that contain every episode of a particular series. It's expected that there should be 40 of these mega TV series collections available from retailers.

Although somewhat new in terms of TV show discs, this is hardly a groundbreaking development for DVD. Since DVD sales took off several years ago studios have released version after version of some movies, with multiple versions sometimes only differing in the packaging used.



Buyers for retail outlets aren't sold on these box sets yet. “A problem is that most saw the success of Sex and the City, and studios said, 'We can do that,'” Newbury Comics buyer Ian Leshin said. “That was a cult show that people really wanted to own. This time, it seems there are a lot of releases that are coming out just because they happened to finish the whole series.”

“Last year, we had to make sure we had a bunch of [20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s] Buffy the Vampire complete sets and a bunch of Sex and the City, but this time, I’m not as worried about shelf space, because we won’t need to carry as many copies,” said Leshin. In fact he says the chain will only be purchasing a single set of each title per store pending actual sales data.

Studio executives are more positive about sales prospects. “We wanted to create something unique that would stand out,” said Bob Oswaks, executive VP at Sony Pictures Television. “This will definitely capture people trolling the aisles.”

However, even the studios are somewhat cautious about short term sales predictions. “Unlike usual DVD releases, where you see huge sales in week one, this is going to be slow and steady through the holidays,” said Rosemary Markson, Warner VP of TV marketing.“And we definitely think this can have viability for several years.”

Source: Video Business

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 23 Nov 2007 18:17

• Previous article

• Only 2000 Sony OLED TVs available in Japan?

• Next article

• Blu-ray player hits new low price

• 12 comments

• ZippyDSM

  If they price it foolishly at 100 or more forget it it wont sell well.

  24.11.2007 02:32 #1

• M4DHATT3R

  The Complete X-Files Series Box Set, which I really want, is fairly expensive but when compared to buying all of the seasons seperately you actually save quite a bit of money. My only hesitation of spending that kind of money on a "DVD" box set is having to re-purchase it a couple years down the line when one of the High Definition DVD formats becomes the new standard and is priced good to completely replace DVD's (as did DVD's over over VHS). Beyond that I like the whole "complete series release" idea of former TV shows.

  24.11.2007 06:46 #2

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by M4DHATT3R: The Complete X-Files Series Box Set, which I really want, is fairly expensive but when compared to buying all of the seasons seperately you actually save quite a bit of money. My only hesitation of spending that kind of money on a "DVD" box set is having to re-purchase it a couple years down the line when one of the High Definition DVD formats becomes the new standard and is priced good to completely replace DVD's (as did DVD's over over VHS). Beyond that I like the whole "complete series release" idea of former TV shows.So if each DVD was 5 or 8 bucks you know the "real price" of it is it more or less the amount they want?
  
  its a sales gimmick like any other, best to wait and tag it used for another 20-40% off ^_~
  
  
  The media mafia still needs to overhaul its whole pricing schemes.

  24.11.2007 06:53 #3

• badkrma

  I hear that M4Dhatt3R. I found an online service that sells DVD box sets out of china. I ordered X-Files the complete season that are exact discs and language just packaged with some Chinese language but mostly it is all in English .I'm not paying over $200 for something that has come and gone. It costs me $134 US. So I expect it in a couple of weeks. If this works out they have much more on the site as well.

  24.11.2007 08:20 #4

• P51ride

  The studios are hoping that everyone will purchase the HD sets later on after they've already purchased the standard definition sets. I for one won't purchase the HD sets unless there is nothing else. I would urge anyone who purchase the standard sets to boycott the HD sets. We all need to send a message to the studios that we're not going to take their crap anymore. When they start crying about lackluster sales we just tell them that they need to get some CHEESE to go with their WHINE.
  
  Best Regards

  24.11.2007 09:06 #5

• SProdigy

  Hey guys, they are talking about TV shows here... how many of those have actually been shot in HD that are out right now? Shows like Seinfeld, X-Files, South Park, etc. won't even benefit much on an HD format, since they were SD shows to begin with. I think that only season 6 (final season) of Sopranos was made for HD, and maybe season 5. So are you willing to shell out the money on an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray set for seasons 1-4 when they will basically be upconverted footage of the DVD set?

  24.11.2007 11:49 #6

• c1c

  Originally posted by SProdigy: Hey guys, they are talking about TV shows here... how many of those have actually been shot in HD that are out right now? Shows like Seinfeld, X-Files, South Park, etc. won't even benefit much on an HD format, since they were SD shows to begin with. I think that only season 6 (final season) of Sopranos was made for HD, and maybe season 5. So are you willing to shell out the money on an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray set for seasons 1-4 when they will basically be upconverted footage of the DVD set?This brings up a great point. I was thinking the same thing. The older shows weren't shot in HD. So for these 'HD' rereleases they are just scanning the old negatives and upconverting to a higher resolution. Just better to stick with the original DVDs with an upconvert DVD player.
  
  When making movies they scan original frames into the computer and then complete the post production of color correction and special effects. So will they do this for non HD source movies or will they just take the original mix and up it to 'HD'?
  
  Seems like a gimmik.

  24.11.2007 12:27 #7

• redux79

  “We wanted to create something unique that would stand out,” said Bob Oswaks, executive VP at Sony Pictures Television. “This will definitely capture people trolling the aisles.”
  
  If that's the kind of consumer their aiming for, some one "trolling the isles" that’s a monumental mistake. If I go to a store I'm usually looking for something I want to begin with. If I happen to see something else that sparks my interest it's usually because it's not horrendously over priced. Most people don't decide to drop 100 to 200 dollars just casually looking for something. Once again another Sony exec without a clue…

  24.11.2007 14:01 #8

• catfreak

  “We wanted to create something unique that would stand out,” said Bob Oswaks, executive VP at Sony Pictures Television. “This will definitely capture people trolling Netflix.”

  24.11.2007 15:35 #9

• vamsilak

  catfreak is right
  since they are upconverting all these tv shows
  (lets faceit u think they will scan the films from the tv shows and convert to hd content i don't think so especially hddvd content areable to convert and burn thruthe red lasers)
  is it reallly looks good on the hdtv's to bring the wow out
  if its not people are going to start buying it from netflix since they are giving good deals:)

  24.11.2007 17:05 #10

• td1ddy

  Actually, many of the shows are originally "Shot" in something that isn't called high-def, but it is basically the same thing. It is than down converted into SD resolution to play on television. However, most recent shows won't appear in high definition, but if you have the original "hard" copy of the program at the studio, it is ALL shot in high definition. Big studios haven't shot things without high quality in a a while.

  25.11.2007 00:08 #11

• borhan9

  Nothing major TV series could make a killing if all of them come out in major package with major special features.

  20.12.2007 05:12 #12