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View Full Version : Why are they splitting seasons in half on DVD box sets?

Alex Dragon
10-20-2009, 05:51 PM
I notice more and more that TV seasons of shows are being split into parts. It happens with animated series like FANTASTIC FOUR, BRAVE AND THE BOLD, BATMAN and today I saw it with the animated IRONMAN series. Instead of a full season of shows one we get about 6 episodes. Now they seem to be doing it with live action series. I've been waiting for years for the tv show VEGA$ to be put on DVD and when they finally do they only put half of the 1st season out at the cost of a full season.

Is there a reason behind this other than the companies doing this in an attempt to get more more from consumers? Is there anyone who prefers the seasons to be split?
noh-varr
10-20-2009, 07:19 PM
They split it to make more money. And I don't know anyone who likes it that way. I hate when they do that and it has stopped me from buying seasons for some shows.
Young Avenger
10-20-2009, 07:23 PM
The same thing happened with anime boxsets. I won't support such pratices.
Sabrina_Fried
10-20-2009, 07:38 PM
I absolutely hate this practice. It is the main reason I still haven't seen the last half of season 4 of BSG. The box sets are WAY overpriced too.

And when they do it with Anime it annoys me twice as much because not only do they split up the seasons, but the box sets get delayed again and again and again...

Sabrina
Young Avenger
10-20-2009, 07:44 PM
They even split animes that don't have seasons. Welcome to the NHK is a 26-episode series and it has "season" 1 & 2 boxsets. What.the.HELL!!
ForeverTaskmaster
10-21-2009, 01:25 AM
Splitting up seasons is such a below the belt action. I hate it with a passion. Those moneygrabbing DVD producers should not complain when people start downloading the stuff instead of buying it in halfs.
Sean Walsh
10-21-2009, 07:26 AM
And this seems to be a tactic that only happens with certain animated programs and popular hour-long dramas. Seldom, if ever, happens with sitcoms or reality teevee stuff....
dumbstruck
10-21-2009, 08:45 AM
Why does George Lucas keep putting out new editions of Star Wars?

The half seasons wouldn't be so bad if they were half the price of a full season. But the price tag is close if not equal to a complete season set. This practice is money grubbing at its worst.
Pauly T
10-21-2009, 12:45 PM
The cartoons are put out in single-disc episode bunches to appeal to parents to grab one for the kid while out shopping. The full seasons usually follow if sales are good.

The half seasons are usually for older shows that have seasons longer than the typical 22-26 episode orders of today.

Also it's just basically used to test the waters on DVD. If the first volume sells through, they make more.
the_coldest_sun
10-21-2009, 03:52 PM
I first noticed this with Nip/Tuck. The first four seasons are available in complete season sets, but the season 5 is split up which is extremely disappointing since I just finished season 4. Like Dumbstruck said, it wouldn't be so bad if the prices matched the content but as they are now its just rediculous.
Shellhead
10-21-2009, 04:04 PM
Why does George Lucas keep putting out new editions of Star Wars?

The half seasons wouldn't be so bad if they were half the price of a full season. But the price tag is close if not equal to a complete season set. This practice is money grubbing at its worst.

Lucas wants some more money without working for it. A better question might be, "why do people keep buying these new editions?"

You are right about the half season sets. They wanted more money but they knew that consumers would balk at the new price tag. So they did a stealth increase by splitting the seasons in half so the apparent price would be lower. Of course, a lot of people will be able to handle the math of multiplying by two, and see right through this.

If everybody refused to buy these half-season sets, they will stop doing this and go back to full season sets. Vote with your dollars.
Jack
10-21-2009, 04:11 PM
Other than the one instance in which I wanted only a single episode of a show, I hate this. But I don't know, it just seems like there must be a slightly better reason than just the money. Or at least a deeper reason as to why they make more money that way.
Shellhead
10-21-2009, 04:19 PM
Other than the one instance in which I wanted only a single episode of a show, I hate this. But I don't know, it just seems like there must be a slightly better reason than just the money. Or at least a deeper reason as to why they make more money that way.

It's consumer psychology. That's why products are often priced at one penny short of a round figure. $9.99 seems significantly cheaper than $10.00, despite the trivial difference. An especially important price point is $19.99. Items that cost more than that sell much worse than items below that.

There are other ways for companies to manipulate consumers. Increase the size of a bag of chips while leaving the quantity of actual chips the same. People will notice more air in the bag, but will still respond more favorably to the larger bag. Companies can also cheapen the mix, by substituting cheaper ingredients for more expensive ingredients. Campbells does this with soup... established flavors like chicken noodles will have proportionately less chicken than a newer flavor, like chicken chowder.
Astonishing X-Fan
10-21-2009, 04:46 PM
I'm actually pretty sure that in regards to anime, there are licence issues that companies have to deal with, that usually involves them getting the okay to release 13 episodes at a time, give or take. I swear I read about this somewhere, but I can't remember where.
the goddamn batman
10-22-2009, 12:28 AM
Pirate tv.
mgs
10-22-2009, 02:45 AM
They split it to make more money.
yup, that's the answer.

Pirate tv.
but this should not be the response.
Totoro Man
10-24-2009, 10:57 AM
what does that mean "pirate TV'?

why NOT record a television show that you like and watch it later. I used to do that with Mystery Science Theater all the time-- there was NO WAY I could stay up late enough to watch a whole episode and make it to work in the morning. I paid for the cable-- it makes sense to me.

if "pirate TV" means steal cable-- well then, no, that's not acceptable.
Alex Dragon
10-25-2009, 05:20 AM
The cartoons are put out in single-disc episode bunches to appeal to parents to grab one for the kid while out shopping. The full seasons usually follow if sales are good.

The half seasons are usually for older shows that have seasons longer than the typical 22-26 episode orders of today.

Also it's just basically used to test the waters on DVD. If the first volume sells through, they make more.

It seems like they want the set to fail. It's such a turn off to see only half a season many people refuse to buy the half set (especially the higher priced ones). The lack of sales of the half season is probably sending a false message that people aren't interested in buying the series so they might feel the sales of the half don't warrant a full season boxset coming out. Or when the actual full season set comes out not many people end up buying it because they bought the half seasons. Nothing about this practice makes sense.

From a economical standpoint on their end, they've already started transferring and recording the shows and putting the packaging together and shipping the thing, why not put all the shows in the set and be done with it?

If they're afraid of not making back the money on the investment on older or less popular shows, do the cheap packaging, double sided, no extras type set.
The Xenos
10-25-2009, 10:18 AM
With anime it's done because Japan and Japanese studios charge buttloads more for DVDs in Japan. The Japanese companies charge more so the US distributors needs to. The cost of dubbing is actually next to nothing compared to the licencing fees. So anime is released in single volumes instead of full seasons. Sadly they're still cheaper with more episodes per disk than the original Japanese DVD relealses.

As for Brave and the Bold and other children's shows, they're milking money because they know kids don't know how much DVDs cost and parents will buy them. For older collectors, we wait for the cheaper full box sets.

I know I can't wait for Brave and Bold to come out with a full season box set.
Ronald Bryan
10-25-2009, 11:19 AM
Sometimes it does matter about the shows, though. Some shows like Entourage have the seasons split in the airing, so buying the half seasons are a way to watch it before the other half of the season airs. One thing I did not like was splitting the Rescue Me season while it was airing and releasing part of it then.