Full-series TV DVDs grow at retail

40 'mega' sets expected by end of the year

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 11/21/2007

NOV. 21 | “Mega” TV DVD collections are swelling retailer shelves as studios try to squeeze more revenue out of previously released content.

Stores are carefully ordering the sets, which are coming fast and furious.

Between October and December, Warner Home Video alone is streeting eight such TV-based supersets, including 32-disc Full House: The Complete Series, 42-disc The Gilmore Girls: The Complete Series and 28-disc The OC: The Complete Series. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is behind two, 33-disc Seinfeld and 27-disc The King of Queens full series sets.

By year’s end, around 40 such packages should be available in the marketplace.

 “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.”

Taking a cautious approach, Leshin is generally ordering one set per new mega collection for each of the chain’s 27 stores.

“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.

Granted, nearly all TV shows represented in the supersets represent highly rated series. But Leshin notes that some of these, including King of Queens and The O.C., experienced sliding sales with each subsequent individual release, which might not bode well for a complete series release.

“There were huge numbers for The O.C. in season one, but every season after that sold half of what the one before did,” he said.

To motivate retailers to rally around its mega sets, Sony created store exclusives for Seinfeld. At Best Buy, for instance, consumers can pick up the title wrapped in a box that looks like Jerry Seinfeld’s refrigerator from the show. At Sony Style, customers can buy the set encased in a package that looks like a coffee table, modeled after a favorite Seinfeld episode story line.

“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, like retailers, studios also are managing expectations on the mega sets priced at $150 to $200 apiece, positioning them not just as content fit for 2007, but as perennial DVDs that can be re-released for many holiday seasons to come.

 “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.”

Markson added that such bulging sets are necessary for studios and retailers to continue to evolve a maturing TV DVD category.

Virgin Megastores senior catalog manager Chris Anstey agrees. “Since the master tapes have already been produced for the individual seasons, production costs on the DVD mega sets are relatively minimal, so the studios really just see this as incremental business, even if sales aren’t astronomical,” he said. “Megasets [can be] compiled just for those handful of folks who might want to take the plunge.”