Adam Tyner

...although that's exactly what he did.

Seems to be working well for the video game industry.

Easy

I don't recall mentioning any particular person or studio. I may be the Lone Ranger, but I want a complete set and I always look at the total price. If show XYZ has an MSRP of $80 and I think it is overpriced and decide not to buy, cutting it in half and charging $45 per half isn't going to sway me. I don't need an easy payment plan. I want the best bottom line price they can offer on a full season. Period.

Having said that, I am fully aware that there are many people at HTF lobbying for release of a second season of Lost in Space and MTM. I don't doubt that Mr. Standon is trying to find a way to meet that demand. I respect him for that but I agree with moocher when he says:Sorry, but if Fox really can't make a profit on these shows maybe they should just let it go.
Compounding the problem is the sheer volume of TV released on DVD. I simply can't afford all the shows I would like to have nor can I store it all. Choices have to be made and there are going to be some losers. I know fans of shows that don't get a second season release don't want to hear that, but there it is.

My concern is really not over a couple of shows with poor sales. My concern is that this "concept" will become the standard for ALL shows and the price increases that will bring. Many studios are giving this concept a trial run.
Most seasons (2-5) of Sex and the City have and MSRP of $49.99. The of Season 6 part one is also $49.99.
Anyone care to guess what part two will cost? I'm thinking I don't want to know.

LasVegasMichael

Being a true TV on DVD fanatic, the only thing I despise more then splitting a season is no season at all.

Thankfully, I detest Sex and the City, and wouldn't buy it for pennies on the dollar, but I have many other Season sets from other shows that have never completed their releases, and truly annoyed me (Mary Tyler Moore, Larry Sanders, NYPD BL to name a few).

However, shows like Friends, CSI, Homicide, and even ER and Sledge Hammer are lookng more then promising, so no real complaints here, though I do hope that the complete season is released an not lame split ups, or even worse, Best ofs.

Regarding prices, budget is of course a factor, but the wallet takes it better with things like the DDD 20% coupon where I blew over $700 almost entirely on TV on DVD. I knew that the opportnities to "save" like that are few and far between, so I took full advantage, and don't regret it at all (although I am not too sure why I bought Dukes of Hazzard, a true impulse buy, no doubt).

I just hunt the bargains everywhere I can to make it easier. The Complete X-Files series was procured from a fellow DVD Talker on the Trade forum for a greatly reduced price, and still fell good about that one too, though I have yet to watch a single episode (gotta work to pay for these things!).

I think my limit is about $50 a season for anything. I think CSI was the most expensive single season I have ever purchased at about $52 each from the DDD sale, and I wasn't too happy about it, but the deed it done (and it is worth it as a blind buy!)

I guess my final take on this would be that I would rather pay more for each season then have no season at all, but that is just me.

Easy

I've never seen a single show. Just using it as an example. Maybe a better example is Wiseguy . One hour drama, season one part 1 $69.99, season 1 part 2 $69.99... and they didn't even use all the original music. Sound good? Maybe to some, not to me.

Peep

I may be in the minority here, but I like being able to buy the entire series, over time, without taking huge hits each time a new season comes out. I agree that Sex and The City, Season 6 (part 1 and 2) seem like a big scam, but that's because they are charging the same amount for a half-season that they did for a full one.

Shelling out 50 bucks every 6-12 months is not nearly as appealing as to me as shelling out 25 bucks every 3-6 months. And it is even more appealing if you want to give half season sets out as gifts on birthdays and Christmas. As long is the price is almost the same after the split, why even care?

B4Bishop

They are doing this with Farscape. Which is why I have not bought any of them so far. They put out 3 eps per dvd and sell that for 26 bucks 26 bucks!!!!! they are crazy. Although season one is still going for 119 bucks!!!!

Sunday Morning

dastards!

jdslater

Couple of things I noticed while reading this and the HTF site:
1) some one suggested a "sampler" disc, to me this is one step below a "best of..." release, personally I hate "best of.." discs of tv shows, I thought we all wanted complete seasons.
2) a poster on HTF mentioned "buy from europe" due to the fact we get complete seasons. sort of. Most fox releases are the same as the R1 version BUT are very different in price. Example R1 Simpsons S4, I got from Play.com for £22, but if I bought the R2 version I'm looking at nearly £40, Harsh realm R1 £18,R2 £28.
I think the worst offender is CSI. R1 full season £35, R2 part 1 & part 2 would be nearly £80.
Admittingly we do get some good stuff, Murder one is out in Sept, but you guys get alot better stuff then we do.
Besides having 2 parts to a tv show really takes up more shelf space!

JIF

FOX better not split 24: Season 3......

sracer

Actually no... not all of us want complete seasons of every show. That's the same mentality of having to have Ultra-Editions of every film in one's collection.

As much as I hate double-sided discs, I wouldn't mind buying a double-sided sampler disc that was chock-full of episodes chosen at random over the course of a series run. Make the sampler disc $5.

I don't necessarily want the complete series set of "Room 222" or "Streets of San Francisco", but a 4-6 episode "sampler" would be ideal. There's probably about 50 TV shows that I wouldn't mind having on DVD, but buying entire series for each is prohibitive (in terms of cost and space).

Of course some series, like Lost In Space, Prisoner, and Star Trek:TOS are ones that I'd want the entire series.

Philip Reuben

While you're entitled to your own opinion about complete seasons, I think this is a really bad analogy in any case. Wanting a complete season is more equivalent to wanting the entire movie, as opposed to just the "best" scenes of the movie. (How many extras are included on the DVDs, for movies or for TV series, is a different issue entirely.) Of course, there are holes in my analogy too.

tanman

I don't like the idea and won't defend the studios. Plain and simple it is a SCAM to get more money. The whole reasoning behind is is that people will pay 30 + 30 rather then 50. Yeah companies are there to make money but I hate it when they intentionally scam customers with subterfuge and banking on the fact that they won't pay attention. Sure there are extra costs with packaging and all but all the production costs pale in comparison with the price that they are selling it for. I think and I hope that the whole idea will backfire.

And what's with this whole "well its either our way or none at all". I fail to believe that TV on DVD is not a highly profitable endevour even if they sell entire seasons at $20. If they have trouble moving stock then cut the price. Every other industry (including the movie section of DVD) knows this. Why don't they follow suit?

fitprod

tanman....

When studios slash prices on movies, they've already sold hundereds of thousands, if not millions, of units.

When studios are dealing with television, they are estactic when the move 50,000 to 100,000 units.

Slashing prices on these units might help them move, but it probably wont help the studio recoup thier production costs.

fitprod

moocher

What I don't get about this is that this "solution" assumes that there is a problem to begin with. From all I read, the studios are cleaning up on TV sets. Yes there are a few sets that don't sell as well but isn't that to be expected? Not everything put on a disk is going to sell like hotcakes.

Production costs? The content has already been produced for TV so how much does it really cost to transfer the ready made content to disk? Not much I would think. Yes, extras will cost some but I would not think it is prohibitive.

No, this to me all smacks of greed. How can we make even more money off this booming business of TV on DVD? Why else would they be trying to fix something that isn't broken? Greed, that's why.

sracer

I never said that it was an analogy... I said that it is the same mentality. The "all or nothing" mentality that drives people to get the absolute best/feature-rich disc for every movies is the same "all or nothing" mentality for TV shows... that one must buy every episode of every season of a show... or buy nothing.

This was in response to the comment that "everybody wants season sets".

jdslater

Just a question to sracer, what if the "sampler disc" of your tv show that you were willing to buy didn't have the particular episode you wanted to see?
I suppose you are right in this "all-or-nothing" mentality, but it could be said that it depends on the tv show. Something like 24, Alias and Profiler have a common story thread running through out the season to tie up a story thread. But like I said in my post CSI part 1 & 2 is a very big strain on my wallet. Also I like to think I buy certain tv shows just based on the fact they have the complete series. I bought dead like me because I missed the second half of the season, now if that was available in 2 parts I probably would not have bought it.

Peep

Obtaining the rights to the music used in some TV series can be cost-prohibative.

Philip Reuben

Then replace "bad analogy" with "bad representation of the mentality", and my point still stands. I maintain that wanting a complete TV season is only an "all or nothing" mentality in that same sense that wanting a complete movie is. Wanting every episode of a series is not in any way equivalent to wanting lots of bonus features with a movie.