Delay for some TV DVD season sets

When season-one discs underperform

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 10/14/2005

OCT. 14 | Many TV series are now into their fifth or sixth seasons of DVD release, but several shows seem stuck in first gear.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has yet to roll out a second set of Malcolm in the Middle after launching the first-season set in 2002. After much hoopla over the mid-2004 launch of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy, Paramount Home Entertainment has yet to bow subsequent seasons.

High costs and low sales seem to be the culprit in most such cases, as music clearances on TV titles can get prohibitively pricey with no guarantees of big sales.

One mid-sized chain brought in 900 copies of Happy Days and failed to sell more than 100 in the first week, said a retail source.

“If it doesn’t sell off 30% to 40% in the first week, you know it’s not going to happen,” a chain exec said.

At Amazon.com, the most requested title these days is a second-season set of Twin Peaks, a DVD franchise Lions Gate Home Entertainment launched in 2001.

Lions Gate licensed Twin Peaks from Spelling Entertainment, which has since been purchased by Viacom. That placed the title at Paramount Home Entertainment, which has yet to re-activate the franchise.

To get around high costs, studios commonly have subbed in cheaper TV soundtracks for subsequent-season sets, but that practice has drawn some consumer ire. So retailers suggest studios consider other cost-shaving practices, such as packaging two seasons in one for some of the dormant titles.

“It’s healthy to have a decent lag time between discs, but if there’s too much time in between, there might be a drop off in interest,” Virgin Entertainment Group buyer Chris Anstey said. “What amazes me is that no matter how obscure or generic a TV show might be, there’s always someone who’ll buy it. As long as the studios recognize this, they can manufacture modest quantities and generate respectable sales.”

Gord Lacey, creator of TVShowsOnDVD.com, said some consumers hold off buying first-season TV DVD sets until further sets are announced.

“If season one doesn’t sell, the studio won’t release season two, but the problem with fans is that they’ll say they won’t buy something until a studio seems committed,” Lacey said.

Fred Meyer buyer Randy Schaff would love to see combo packaging of separate but related TV shows, such as Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days, the stars of which each appeared on both shows.

“I think you have to change the concept if the first one doesn’t work,” Schaff said. “Combine Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley at a different price point … [or] take the best episodes of certain seasons and put them into something at a lesser price point.”

Fox had slow sales with its first 2002 release of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. But a second-season set came out this past July and a third-season set is scheduled for January.

“We went out there ahead of everyone else with classic TV,” Fox senior VP marketing communications Steve Feldstein said. “And it took awhile for people in the industry to catch up.”

As for potential future sets of Malcolm in the Middle, he noted, “We’re constantly evaluating everything in our library.”

Tower believes it sold less than 500 copies each of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. But the chain would like to see future episodes on disc.

“Why can’t they cram as many [episodes] as possible on as few DVDs as they can?” Tower national advertising manager Terrel Porter-Smith said. “They can release it complete and it’s done for some of these lesser shows. Not only are we running out of room, but consumers are running out of shelf space in their homes.”

Currently, the most popular way to release TV DVD is individual full-season sets.

Paramount did not comment on potential subsequent sets for Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy or Twin Peaks.

Newbury Comics suggests iffy TV series be released during Christmas. Even sales of popular series, such as Seinfeld, have stifled when released outside of heavy purchasing periods.

“Season four [of Seinfeld] sold between a third to a half of what the second box set [holding season three] did,” Newbury buyer Ian Leshin said. “Those first two boxes sold at Christmas [2004] and were huge. The fourth was in May. But with season five, I’ve ordered more copies than four, because I’m sure we’ll get extra business.”

Personally, Leshin is crossing his fingers for a second Twin Peaks set.

E-mail Susanne Ault