So is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 9 getting a BD release or not? Amazon has updated their placeholder page with the release date this upcoming Tuesday, and Blu-ray.com has it as well. I can't find any confirmation otherwise.

Looks like the Amazon listing for Always Sunny Season 9 was just never taken down. The item is back-ordered now with no shipping date.

This sucks. I have collected every season so far and it's the only way I catch up with Modern Family. Sigh. This makes no sense. Everyone has a HDTV now. The production cost of BD is likely not much more than DVD. The format is a good 8 years old now. If anything, put out only the BD, and not the DVD.

It's not coming out. Fox abandoned Blu-ray releases for shows that weren't selling well on the format.

I guess that's what we get for waiting for the price drop to sub $10 instead of paying $25 and up!

Grrrrr...

It's not just the production cost. There's also the cost of inventorying it and distributing it, and stores are increasingly limiting what stock they have. If the discs aren't selling well enough to make up for all those costs, they're not going to keep releasing them.

Studios would likely just see an overall drop in physical media sales. It doesn't make sense to alienate the consumers. Every BD player can play DVDs as well, no DVD player can play BDs, so the rule of lowest common denominator says that it's better to release it DVD-only. It's like how everything is still released on CD instead of SACD, DVD-A, or BD-A.

Also, like SACD, DVD-A, & BD-A, BD-Video was released just as the shift to digital streaming and downloads happened. Those high-quality audio disc formats never really took off because most everyone switched to lower-quality MP3 downloads or "internet radio" streams because they're more convenient. That switch is happening to video now. Studios are compensating by including digital downloads with the physical disc, but it's not enough. It's easier for many to watch an HD stream of Modern Family on Netflix than to buy each season on disc.

Combo DVD/BD releases help mitigate some of the problems with distributing separate DVD and BD releases, but those typically only work best with movies where you're talking 2 or 3 discs at most, not the 5-6 per format you may need for a TV show.

Netflix will probably have the show in HD.

Pretty much. If people continue to only purchase TV shows when they are major sold at a major discount and loss, that gives FOX or other studios no incentive to continue to make them.

There is still a market for television on Blu-ray, but the major studios' home video departments are getting smaller and smaller every year as revenues shrink. Fox is actually licensing out some TV titles now to Olive Films. The studio heads cut the department by 10% year after year, leaving no one left capable of churning out X number of titles. This is true at all the majors. I'm sure an upper-level Fox exec got a nice Christmas bonus when he decided to eliminate them.

Physical media sales as a whole are down and still falling and Blu-ray is an even smaller market, and TV requires a bigger expense because of the number of episodes and discs. It's disappointing, sure, but not surprising. I guess UV codes to play HD versions on Vudu will have to do. It's not like there's a conspiracy at work, they simply don't have much interest in releasing something which won't sell very well. Add to that that many people understandably wait for the price to go down, and it's further understandable. It sucks, but it makes sense.

Netflix instant won't have Modern Family anytime soon because the multi million dollar syndication deal that FOX made with the USA Network stated that Modern Family can't be shown on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.

True, Modern Family is an exception, although that deal isn't turning out so great for USA Network:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...89700145125382

Not just Modern Family.

There's a history of off-network syndicated tv show reruns becoming very costly duds, such as "Without a Trace" on TNT.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/new...19?rssid=20065
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...t-for-tnt.html
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...a-trace/41905/

Can't read that article without signing up.

Here's a trick for dealing with the wsj paywall: Copy the article's headline, do a google search for it, then click on the google link. You'll be able to see the full article.

Wow, USA is paying $1.4M per episode. FOX is probably laughing all the way to the bank with that price that managed to get. I have to wonder how much ABC pays for first run episodes.

Going back further in time. (For perspective).

Allegedly:

- Spike paid $1.9M per episode of CSI, back in 2002.

- Bravo + USA paid $1.9M per episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, back in 2004.

- A&E paid $2.5M per episode of The Sopranos, back in 2005.

- USA paid $1.4M per episode of Without a Trace, back in 2004.


(These $ amounts are in nominal non-inflation adjusted figures).

... or if they wait till they don't have to pay anything extra at all.

More recent off-network syndication deals. (For perspective).


- TNT is paying around mid-$2 million per episode of Hawaii Five-0. (Deal made back in 2011).

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/new...ve-0-cbs/37784

- TNT is paying around $2.2-2.3 million per episode of The Mentalist. (Deal made back in 2009).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...tion-tnt-90988

- USA is paying $2+ million per episode of NCIS: Los Angeles. (Deal made back in 2009).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blo...dication-52522

- WGN is paying around $1.1-1.5 million per episode of Person of Interest. (Deal made in 2013).

http://deadline.com/2013/10/wgn-amer...terest-605358/

- TBS is paying $1.5+ million per episode of The Big Bang Theory. (Deal made in 2010).

http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/big-b...eruns-tbs.html
http://deadline.com/2010/05/toldja-b...ses-out-41400/

Hmmm ...

Netflix is paying around $2M per episode of The Blacklist in an exclusive off-network syndication deal, before anybody else.

http://deadline.com/2014/08/the-blac...illion-825836/

Their previous big off-network syndication deal, was around $1.35M per episode of The Walking Dead.

An amazon placeholder for season 2 of The Blacklist.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00NX7ECYC

Amazon is showing pre-order listings for a BD release of Archer: Season 5. I guess this could just be a placeholder page, but I couldn't forsee them bothering with one at this point if they weren't going to release it.

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Archer-Season-5/20379

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Archer-Season-5/20379
box art is positive righT?

Not necessarily. Mock art was put up as a placeholder on Amazon for The League and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but the releases were never officially announced.

The Archer art doesn't signify an actual announcement either, but I couldn't foresee Fox doing it now (The League and Always Sunny art was put up nearly 6 months ago) just to release it on DVD.