Could A Serialized Series Have It's Own Life Via Direct To DVD

[Antrobus]

In the same manner that we buy serialized novels, could a serialized series "make it" via a direct to DVD life only?

If so, what would this mean for television as we know it now?

[JrMissToughChick]

TV as we know it is aready ending! I am kidding :)

But I would pay 300 dollors maybe more for 13 new eps of farscape Come on if we are talking about Farscape yes serialize it now ;)

~JrMTC~

[AgentSun]

it'd be incredibly hard to do it with an original series. it'd be hard to convince someone they should spend 14.99 on an episode or two of a series...

especially since there is no way that it could be done every week. you would need several episodes on one disc and that itself would take TONS of time to film. cost is the least of the problems...distribution is mostly the problem.

[Nicola]

I buy books in installments. The Anita Blake, Vampire Executioner novels, the Honor Harrington novels and The Marcus Didus Falco novels, to name a few off the top of my head. Hardback yet - can't wait for the paperback version. Although I often buy the paperbacks so I can have a 'risk-free' copy to lend out to friends.

I don't see all that much difference in buying serialised Farscape. Only problem is that I equate a season to a book. Consequently the price is a little steeper for the Farscape season boxsets compared to a new installment of one of my favourite book series.

[Lord Loser]

Thought of this for quite a while now and I believe it could be done. Distribution wouldn't be a problem, Amazon, Bestprices, etc would allow for that. The problem would be the production. Serialization would mean that each episode would have to pay for itself before the next could be feasibly filmed. If the first DVD release took 3 months to recoup the costs involved, there would be no way to "hold" the studios that long, the sets would be struck, and need to be rebuilt before each subsequent DVD filmed. Now each ep would also need to be either 1 hour or 2 depending on the price of the DVD. Few are going to pay $20 for a one hour DVD, but at $10 per hour, people are going to buy. Now if we take the rumoured production cost at 1.5 mil per, and incorporate some economy of scale, we get to a value of around 2.8 mil per two hour ep. At $20, it would take sales of around 150,000 DVD's to recoup the costs and make a small profit. With all that said, it could be done, but would take a great effort and commitment from the studios/actors/writers.

[fermicat]

I think it would need the widespread exposure of being on TV first. Once there is a fan base established and if the price/volume/production costs balance out so that fans can afford it and the thing makes enough money, then yes it would work.

I'm salivating, just thinking about how great some series would be if the creators were totally unfettered by any broadcast standards, need to keep advertisers happr, and network management demands. Wow. Probably the closest thing to that kind of situation on TV today is the original stuff from HBO.

[vhsiv]

Actually, there's already a lot of anime out there right now that's distibuted in just this way - it may have screened in Japan, but is all but unknown here in the US, unless you frequent Manga websites and such.

I frequently go into BestBuy and frequently walk away from the anime section scratching my head for all of the unfamiliar titles. *However* I recently got a good tip on 'Armitage III, The Complete OVA collection' and possibly 'Patlabor 2'. Otherwise, I just have to keep my eyes peeled on 'Adult Swim', and look for titles that I'm unfamiliar with.

[witchdoctor]

If you had a base of viewers who subscribed to the serialized series, it might work. That way there would be a certain level of guaranteed sales and maybe some money up front for production costs, depending on whether or not there were deals for pre-ordering.

Maybe you could also do something like this on pay per view, if you had subscribers signed up for the episodes in advance. You could still do DVD sales afterwards. No worries about Nielson ratings then. The number of viewers would be known exactly and since the money is directly from the viewers, no need to solicit advertisers or worry about ratings.