TV DVD thrives despite downloads

Studios say Internet availability raises awareness

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 9/22/2006

SEPT. 22 | This season’s slate of TV shows will be available online in more places than ever before, but based on recent TV on DVD sales, retailers may have little to worry about.

The second season sets of Buena Vista Home Entertainment’s Lost, Desperate Housewives and Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s The Office, all widely distributed online last year, were just released on DVD and haven’t been hurt by Internet availability.

Sales of the second-season DVD sets of Lost and Desperate Housewives (both available via downloads and streaming) were comparable or better than sales of the season one DVD released the previous year.

In comparison, the second season set of Warner Home Video’s Veronica Mars, which wasn’t available by download or stream online, also did comparable sales to its first season released last year.

Based on Rentrak’s Retail Essentials, which tracks disc sales, during their first week in stores, all three titles sold comparable to or better than the first-season DVD. (Neither the studios nor Rentrak are putting out sales numbers.)

Sales of season two of NBC show The Office also outsold the first season, according to Universal. The show also was a popular download on iTunes, with NBC even tagging iTunes during its TV airing.

Season two “sold almost nine times as many units in its first week as the first season did, clearly illustrating that there was no negative impact from its early availability on iTunes,” said USHE president Craig Kornblau. “More importantly, the mounting success of this new digital platform underscores its overall value in helping to grow our properties over time.”

Disney was the first studio to begin selling TV shows on Apple last October and streamed some of the same shows on ABC.com for free in May and June.

Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger told investors at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference this week that Lost was the top-selling download, but its season-two DVD sales have topped the first season.

“The results have been stunning, much stronger than last year,” he said. “That’s very interesting. It suggests that you didn’t have a cannibalization effect. If anything, maybe it kept Lost more top of mind.”