Interesting bit of news from the Watching 24 blog, if it's true...FOX is thinking very seriously about marketing a DVD that contains the first four episodes of the upcoming season of 24. The rumor is the DVD is scheduled to come out on Tuesday, January 16, which the day after the two-day, four-hour season premiere airs on FOX. The price will be $14.95.
Like the Watching 24 folks, I think this is an intriguing marketing experiment, but am not sure why FOX is doing this. Do they think the DVD will stem the tide of downloading via BitTorrent and other services? Why would fans pay half the price of a full season just to see four episodes? And won't fans of the show just wait until the entire season comes out on DVD and buy it then? If FOX succeeds in selling a lot of copies of this disc, I wonder if other networks are going to follow suit?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-22-2006 @ 8:36PM
Gary Bourgeault (bizofshowbiz.com) said...
It seems the reason they may do it is because the industry is obviously in such a time of change, that the consumer really hasn't shown Hollywood the way they want to go yet, or haven't been shown the way by what is currently available to them.
The network really has nothing to lose by doing this, and everything to gain. It's obviously an experimental offering to measure whether it's feasible or not.
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11-22-2006 @ 8:54PM
Jake said...
It is worth noting that 24 led the way, if not the first but I think they were the first, to full season television shows on DVD.
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11-22-2006 @ 9:25PM
Student of The Game said...
Just a technical point, Joel. If the price is indeed $14.95, that's the price of half a season. I have every season of 24, and each has cost between 50 and 70 bucks (found some on sale, etc). 30 bucks is a season's worth of sitcom TV, not action/drama TV. So it's more like 1/6 of a season for 1/4 the price of a full season. Still a rip-off, if you ask me.
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11-22-2006 @ 11:49PM
JB said...
Why pay 14.95 for 4 episodes when they are 1.99 each at Itunes? Season 5 is coming out in December at less than 40 dollars at Amazon. So yes, $14.95 is a major ripoff.
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11-22-2006 @ 10:16PM
David4 said...
You can easily find 24 onsale for $20-$30.
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11-22-2006 @ 11:26PM
Gene said...
It's also worth noting that Fox released Futurama in complete season sets... and then LATER released a disc containing a sample of four or so episodes. Despite the fact that the entire series was available, the "Monster Robot Fun Collection" disc sold quite well. Perhaps they this experiment led to the 24 release? Maybe it's a good way for new viewers to become acquainted with the show without having to buy an entire season.
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11-23-2006 @ 11:12AM
Zachary said...
Check out the artwork here:
http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/248.html
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11-23-2006 @ 5:32AM
edd said...
Just let us pay $2 per episode to download fullscreen Divx to keep forever. Over a season I would pay $48/£20 for the season at absolutely no DVD production/distribution cost to Fox. Until then I will stick with BitTorrents thankyou.
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11-23-2006 @ 8:24AM
Mack Swift said...
IGN just confirmed the news along with box art.
http://dvd.ign.com/articles/747/747443p1.html
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11-27-2006 @ 9:27PM
TVblogger said...
Joel,
I just wanted to thank you for linking to my website, and my article. I read TVSquad all the time, and to actually be part of a news story was nice.
Thanks so much. Please keep on visiting the site Joel.
PS--I liked how you referred to me as "folks" thanks for giving people the impression that there is a whole brain-trust behind the scenes over at Watching 24 :)
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