DVDs are yet another way to “watch” TV.
DVDs are yet another way to “watch” TV.
Unlike the VCR threat of years gone by, programming DVDs appeal to the Postmodern’s demand to better manage time. With all those commercials removed, according to a report in the Washington Post, people are buying up everything from The Twilight Zone to Sex and the City.
According to the trade magazine Video Business, TV titles generated approximately $1.5 billion in sales last year — up $610 million from 2002. In addition, the trade newsletter DVD Release Report calculated that studios released 527 TV titles in 2003, nearly double the number released the previous year.“The DVD is becoming a fifth network that [viewers] get to program themselves,” says Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of the online rental service Netflix. “Appointment TV doesn’t work like it used to.”
His company added 400 TV titles just last quarter, bringing to 1,300 the total number of TV titles that members can have mailed to them by ordering through the Internet.
This is just more handwriting on the wall for broadcasters, and further evidence of what Rishad Tobaccowala of the Starcom Mediavest Group meant a few weeks ago when he said, “This is not about the death of TV. It’s about the slow death of the 30-second commercial.”
