Selling TV DVDs Out of Season

Video Business has an article (free registration required) on the most frustrating thing about the TV-on-DVD boom: that some shows get one or two seasons and then no more:

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....

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.

Gord Lacey's colleague David Lambert has further comments at TV Shows on DVD.