Updated July 13, 2009: The New York Times has a piece where for the most part HBO looks to be attributing the successful DVD sales to the show doing very well on HBO when factoring the additional airings in. More info on that story here. Also, it seems that the DVD sales from The-Numbers.com (no relation) have been revised downward since I wrote the piece below, although the DVD has still sold amazingly well.
It's Not TV, It's GAY-ch-B-O?
I'm sure this is definitely a somewhat old theory and old thinking for anyone who began watching True Blood when it debuted last September. But I just started watching last week, so I was late to the game.
For weeks now, I’ve been marveling at the DVD sales for HBO’s True Blood. It’s sold more units and made more revenue than any other TV show this year. The accomplishment is pretty phenomenal, and I’m going to hit you with quite a few numbers to showcase just how phenomenal it is before furthering the speculation on why it has performed so phenomenally. If you’re not interested in the numeric comparisons, skip down to “Why is it selling so well?” section below.
A Comparative Look at Recent TV Show DVD Sales:
In six weeks of release it has sold almost 1.2 million units and grossed almost $41 million in revenue. It’s closest competition in 2009 so far this year comes from 24 season seven, which has also been available for six weeks but has sold less than 600,000 units and grossed just over $19 million. On a revenue basis, True Blood is the only DVD for the year in the top 20, top 30 or top 40 of DVD sales (it is currently 16th through the week ending June 28). 24 season seven is 46th by revenue.
To compare to some of its cable brethren, in four weeks of release Weeds season four (admittedly, not its best effort) had sold 432,000 DVDs and grossed almost $11 million.
Some will say it’s not fair to compare this year’s numbers because most of the 2008-2009 TV seasons have not yet been made available on DVD. That’s true, but it doesn’t matter. We can compare to the full calendar year of 2008 DVD sales when with about 17 weeks of sales (released on 9/2/08) The Office season four was the number one TV show DVD for the year selling 1.06 million units and grossing over $32 million. Because of the way we see data it’s not easy (or even usually possible) to see combined sales across multiple calendar years, but a show like Lost’s season four which went on sale with only a few weeks left in 2008 tracked closely with, but not quite as well as True Blood. After five weeks in release, Lost season four had sold over 976,000 units and grossed over $36 million. After five weeks, True Blood had sold almost 1.1 million DVDs and grossed almost $38 million in revenue.
True Blood is watched on TV by far fewer people than LOST or Grey’s Anatomy, but its DVD sales are better even than those shows and particularly a show like Lost is made for binging on by watching on DVD. You could argue that True Blood sold so well precisely because it’s on HBO, which is available in fewer than a third of the homes in the USA. But, it sells better – and much, much better – than other shows on HBO or on rival Showtime, too. True Blood even bested (particularly in unit sales) season 6, Part 2, the final season of The Sopranos. Though season six, part 1 of The Sopranos had more revenue with over $44 million in sales in 2007, True Blood sold 50% more units . 2007 also had with the best selling TV Show DVD for quite a while – Heroes season one, with almost 1.6 million units sold and $62 million in revenue in ~13 weeks of sales in 2007. I’m not sure it’s likely, but it’s certainly possible that True Blood season one overtakes Heroes season one.
For a lot of reasons, particularly reasons of exposure and awareness -- True Blood is decidedly NOT the cultural phenomenon The Sopranos was – I have found its DVD sales numbers particularly eye popping. What was driving the success? Was it spillover from the success of Twilight? There’s certainly a case to be made for that. After just over three months in release, Twilight has sold almost 9 million units and grossed over $160 million. By any metric, it’s the top DVD of 2009 so far and nothing else is close. But these numbers were so eye-popping that when it crossed a million units in sales, I decided I had to watch it so I could at least find out what the fuss was about.
Why are True Blood DVD Sales selling so well?
I think a lot of gay people are buying the DVDs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! The show uses fictional vampires as a metaphor for the way society treats gay people, at least here in the United States.
I was less than a few minutes into it – actually during the opening theme/credits sequence when I got my first idea the success was perhaps not driven by teenage Twilight loving girls. True Blood, uses the fictional liberation of vampires into society as a metaphor for how society deals with the gay community and it isn’t subtle at all. What I saw in the opening credits with the lit up sign displaying “God Hates Fangs”.
There are many overt references from vampires “coming out of the coffin” to the Bill Compton character pleading with his vampire brethren that if they flaunt their vampire ways, there will be a price to pay, to Vermont being the first state to legalize marriage between humans and vampires.
The show only has only one character in the ensemble who is gay, and there is more heterosexual sex on screen than probably any other show on television. But the plight of the fictional vampires is deliberately intended to closely resemble the real-life plight of gays in the United States. But it seems that True Blood creator Alan Ball isn’t just using the premise to mock right wing gay bashers even if there is plenty of that. The nature of the social commentary seems far broader. A particular focus seems to being paid to whether “mainstreaming” True Blood speak for Vampires acting in ways that fit in with everyone else is a better route to take than flamboyantly flying your vampire flag.
I suspect that a lot of the fuel driving DVD sales of True Blood is interest and strong word of mouth within the gay community. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! From talking to a few people and watching the show, it seems more likely to me than Twilight spillover – True Blood doesn’t seem like the type of show that would be heavily embraced by teenage girls. But it’s very anecdotal, and there is absolutely no data out there that can prove or disprove the theory. Whatever the reasons though, the DVD sales are a great success story for HBO. The ratings story isn’t so bad either.
Nielsen Ratings for True Blood
True Blood took an interesting path rarely seen – one of steadily increasing ratings. True Blood’s season one premiere last September bowed to 1.4 million viewers in its initial airing. The season one finale averaged 2.45 million in its initial airing. And tied in with very robust DVD sales, the season two premiere almost beat out the season one premiere by 100%! Some claimed the numbers were more robust because HBO was offering a freeview weekend over cable and satellite systems, but the results in weeks following the season two premiere indicate that isn’t the cause. Here’s a table of the ratings or at least viewer numbers for True Blood (several episodes from season one are missing):
| Season | Episode | Date | Viewers (Millions)* |
| 1 | Strange Love | 9/7/2008 | 1.4 |
| 1 | The First Taste | 9/14/2008 | 1.8 |
| 1 | Mine | 9/21/2008 | 1.8 |
| 1 | Escape From Dragon House | 9/28/2008 | 1.8 |
| 1 | Burning House of Love | 10/19/2008 | 2.1 |
| 1 | The Fourth Man in the Fire | 10/26/2008 | 2.1 |
| 1 | Plasir D'Amour | 11/2/2008 | 2.4 |
| 1 | To Love is to Bury | 11/16/2008 | 2.7 |
| 1 | You'll Be the Death of Me | 11/23/2008 | 2.5 |
| 2 | Nothing But the Blood | 6/14/2009 | 3.7 |
| 2 | Keep This Party Going | 6/21/2009 | 3.4 |
| 2 | Scratches | 6/28/2009 | 3.7 |
*initial airing only
The numbers are nowhere near as good as the halcyon days of HBO when Sex and the City and The Sopranos were both airing. The Sopranos in its heyday routinely drew more than 10 million viewers and its season three premiere had over 13 million viewers. Still, True Blood is the best news HBO has had since The Sopranos faded to black.
But the numbers that matter to HBO aren't Nielsen viewing numbers. The most important numbers are the number of paying subscribers HBO has and what kind of revenue that is netting them monthly. DVD sales, especially like those from True Blood are gravy. But still they are mostly a rounding error. HBO doesn't suffer any recompense for DVD viewing or On Demand viewing either, and while I sometimes make fun of advertiser supported networks for bringing up multiple airings of shows, there's no such stigma with HBO where there's no advertising revenue impact as a result of DVR, and On Demand and there are no real opportunity costs issues with multiple airings. At least twice so far in season two, HBO has gone over 5 million viewers for True Blood when both Sunday night viewings were factored in.
All HBO needs to worry about is having happy customers, and if its customers are happy watching on their DVRs or On Demand, HBO is happy too. At any rate, having great DVD sales and increasing viewing for True Blood is a great outcome for HBO.
If Season Two’s DVD Sales Are As Good As Season One’s…
…even HBO will probably issue a press release. So far HBO has been notoriously Ladainian Tomlinson-esque and simply flipping the ball to the referee after scoring rather than going with the heavily choreographed end zone dances. There has been no chest thumping about the DVD sales and no chest thumping about the ratings improvements. It’s odd because most networks will chest thump over just about anything. They’re more like the wide receiver who goes into histrionics over catching a five yard pass.
In the PR world of television, even beating a rerun of Legally Blonde 2 is chest-thump worthy. HBO definitely gets the “TVbytheNumbers Ladainia Tomlinson Award”.
One thing even HBO can’t know for sure is how many people bought the DVDs and then subscribed to HBO just because of True Blood. So we can’t know how much, if any, the recent increases in viewership can be attributed to new people signing up for HBO just because of True Blood. But figure some of them are, and figure they won’t be as likely to buy the DVDs if they are already subscribing. Even maintaining season one DVD sales numbers with season two would be a great accomplishment, but increasing them would be a major league big deal. However interest in the show still seems to be growing. It will be interesting to see how things progress from here.
What do I think of the show?
What I think of the show doesn’t matter, but since someone is bound to ask… Vampires aren’t really my thing, so in that regard I definitely wound up liking it more than I thought I would. But mostly I thought season one was OK, but not great. There were many episodes (and not just the first four) where there were several minutes or more per episode where I just wasn’t engaged at all. But, I found the last few episodes of season one were much better.
To use HBO comparisons, I didn’t find it in The League of The Sopranos first few seasons (particularly the first two) or any season of The Wire. I also didn’t enjoy it as much as the first couple of seasons of Dexter though I’d say I probably did enjoy it about as much as the third season of Dexter. But again, I found that season one finished strong and that the last few episodes were much better, as was the season two premiere (as of this writing,) I have yet to watch the second and third episodes of season two). I’ll stick with it for a while. Partly because I enjoy it, but alsobecause there’s more interest in its ratings than any other premium cable show.
| Season | Episode | Date | Viewers (Millions)* |
| 1 | Strange Love | 9/7/2008 | 1.4 |
| 1 | The First Taste | 9/14/2008/ | 1.8 |
| 1 | Mine | 9/21/2008 | 1.8 |
| 1 | Escape From Dragon House | 9/28/2008 | 1.8 |
| 1 | Burning House of Love | 10/19/2008 | 2.1 |
| 1 | The Fourth Man in the Fire | 10/26/2008 | 2.1 |
| 1 | Plasir D'Amour | 11/2/2008 | 2.4 |
| 1 | To Love is to Bury | 11/16/2008 | 2.7 |
| 1 | You'll Be the Death of Me | 11/23/2008 | 2.5 |
| 2 | Nothing But the Blood | 6/14/2009 | 3.7 |
| 2 | Keep This Party Going | 6/21/2009 | 3.4 |
| 2 | Scratches | 6/28/2009 | 3.7 |
This article is a joke. True Blood is doing so well because it’s a great show, not because the gays are pumping up the numbers.
First off, I’m a straight male, 21 years old. I haven’t touched anything involving Twilight. I don’t normally like the vampire genre (Buffy, Angel…).
So why am I watching , and hooked on True Blood? First it’s original, edgy, gory, and even funny at times. Another HUGE reason I watch is ANNA PAQUIN! I mean come on lol.
Seriously dude, you watch 1 episode of season 2, talk to a few people, and you make your “assessment” that gay people are boosting the sales. Get real man.
Great article! I just love numbers and sales news.
I would love to know what the ratings were for sex and the city and also how many units they sold on DVD.
I would also love to know in total, to date, how many units has LOST season 4 sold (I bought it on bly ray)?
It’s not just the gay angle, it’s the discrimination in general angle. By picking the south they also aim at the race issue. It’s a broad spectrum anti-discrimination manifest.
Adam, I watched every episode of season one, and one episode of season two (so I have watched 13 out of 15 episodes) and will watch the rest before the next episode airs on Sunday.
S., I agree in general that by its nature it pokes at all things discriminatory, but “I hate Fangs”, “out of the coffin” and “interspecies marriages legalized in Vermont” are clearly gay influenced.
I rarely buy TV series DVDs unless I like them and want the special features. But I bought True Blood Season 1 strictly from word of mouth. A coworker talked about it for weeks.
I’m curious, though. How did premium tv shows that went for the full gay monty like Queer as Folk and the L-Word do in DVD sales?
What?! The HBO series must be VERY different from the novels, all of which I’ve read. Never while reading them did I ever think any of it had anything to do with gay activism, campaigning against gay discrimination, or anything gay. There were gay characters but they weren’t held up as anything special. And the novels weren’t really about discrimination against even vampires but an exploration of their subculture and what it means to be an immortal. That and the romances the main character (a heterosexual horny telepathic white trash woman) got into. Sure the vampires are kind of discriminated against but they are powerful being that one just doesn’t have much sympathy for.
Anyone both read the novel series and see the HBO series? Is Robert correct about the HBO series?
Scott, to be clear, while the references are not subtle it’s not like there’s 25 minutes of them in every episode. But it’s definitely not zero minutes either. I’m guessing that Nan Flannagan of the American Vampire League isn’t in any of the novels…
I’ve read the books (before the series ever aired, with the exception of the most recent book or two) and think the parallel of vampire and gay discrimination is pretty darn clear, notably in the earliest books. Not so much in the more recent ones, which IMO aren’t as good, for numerous reasons. In particular, the book that goes into the Fellowship of the Sun organization is packed with references. Read that one, and sub in “anti-gay” for each time anything anti-vampire comes up. It’s all over the place.
But yes, the discimination issue is more direct on TV. I certainly wouldn’t call it the focus of the show, but it carries more weight than in the books.
The show in the first season (I haven’t yet seen the second) followed the same basic plot as the first book, but added material, gave some characters larger roles, and put a different spin on various elements.
“S., I agree in general that by its nature it pokes at all things discriminatory, but “I hate Fangs”, “out of the coffin” and “interspecies marriages legalized in Vermont” are clearly gay influenced.”
You can find just as many references to racial discrimination in the show as you can find sexual discrimination. Such as “Fangs can’t sit here” and places not allowing vampires to eat at their establishments. It mirrors all discrimination equally imo.
Due respect, Robert, but I really disagree about True Blood being a metaphor for the gay rights movement (and that being the driver of sales). So does Alan Ball, about which he says:
Still, said Ball, drawing a direct connection between the series’ vampires and the gay rights movement is “lazy”… and wrong. “Ultimately, if you latch onto that metaphor and become really serious about it, it would make the show was extremely homophobic,” he said. “Because vampires are dangerous, they kill, they’re amoral, a lot of them. I don’t think that’s what it is. I think that’s just a nice little detail in what is hopefully a big popcorn thrill ride. It’s a scary romance at the heart of it.”
(The rest of the article is here: http://www.televisionaryblog.com/2009/06/from-dusk-til-dawn-talking-with-alan.html)
Now, perhaps people are buying the DVDs in the mistaken belief that that’s what the show’s about…but I don’t believe that either.
Nor do I believe this has anything to do with Twilight. Excepting the term vampire and the inclusion of fangs, these two media products are nothing alike. Twilight vampires are sparkly and abstinent and thoroughly nonthreatening. True Blood vampires embody sex and death and will literally rip you into pieces and toss aside your body parts without a second thought. They’re two totally different markets with totally different representations of vampires with totally different underlying messages.
No, I think it’s ultimately about the cool factor…and that has to do with marketing. No one wants to be left out of the watercooler conversation, and problematic though it may be, it is one of those shows. People perceive it as something to talk about, because of the exclusivity HBO thing or Americans’ puritanical reaction to naked people having sex on screen or the fact that their friends are scandalized or whatever.
I’d be interested to know if HBO gets any extra subscribers out of this…not that they’ll ever tell us.
I’d have to agree that there is a heavy gay influence in regards to how the vampires are positioned in society inside the TB universe. It may touch upon other sorts of discrimination but I think that’s just minor bits to fill in the blanks as part of the ongoing story.
Cammy, due respect, but Alan Ball is talking out of both sides of his mouth just a little bit. He wants it both ways. He wants to be able to put all the references in, and he wants those references to be a “nice little detail”, but he doesn’t want anyone to latch onto that metaphor. I don’t think it’s the biggest part of the show by any means, but if he wanted to, the show could downplay a lot of the aspects more.
He threw the humans/vampires marriages legalized in Vermont in there on purpose though and if he truly wanted to downplay that kind of stuff, he wouldn’t put so much of it in the show. Still, I think those things do wind up just being nice little details that viewers enjoy.
I do not think people are buying the DVDs because that’s what they think the show is about. But I don’t think it’s a watercooler thing either. 2.45 million watched the season one finale. I don’t see how that by itself generates the the buzz that translates to huge DVD sales and an increase of over 50% in viewing from the S1 finale and the S2 premiere. I don’t get the sense that HBO spent a ton of money marketing the show either.
That’s not to say there isn’t any “it’s what the cool kids are watching” thing going or that there’s not some sort of growing sentiment along those lines, but that just doesn’t explain the phenomenal DVD sales for me.
Puritanical reactions by Americans over all the T&A and sex on screen doesn’t feel right to me spurring DVD sales either though I suppose all the T&A and sex itself very well could’ve. All I’ve seen is the impressive sales numbers, I haven’t seen any puritanical reaction to the show in any of the mainstream media I follow.
Well, there are two much more *obvious* reasons why DVD sales are good for this show: (1) Vampires are hot now; and (2) a limited number of people subscribe to HBO, so many people who *want* to see it have to wait for the DVDs.
And, of course, as Adam notes in the very first post: It’s damn good television.
Jessica, both of those *obvious* reasons were noted and discussed in the post, but when I dug a little deeper they didn’t fly for me as reasons the DVD has sold *so* well. But I could definitely be wrong
lester the l word seems to be primarily watched by hetrosexual men watch the show and you’ll understand why….
Robert, you may be right, but at the moment it’s speculative until someone does a demographic poll of who’s buying the DVD. It could be just word of mouth that the show is good, or spillover from Twilight, or any combination of any number of things as well as the gay demographic. There just isn’t enough evidence. The fact that the show does appear to be treating vampires as gays in some respects isn’t proof of anything.
I think the show as a whole is more an analogical rant about race and religion in the Deep South than specifically about gays. Of course the writers will pull some of this and some of that from every form of discrimination and social discourse of the moment. So gay references will get in there as well.
For myself, I’ve downloaded and watched all episodes of True Blood so far, and I find the show incredibly FUNNY. The characters are all whacked and off the wall. They do incredibly stupid things and get in more trouble in one episode than most characters do in a season. The vampires seem to have more common sense than any of the humans, although they make mistakes, too.
It reminds me of Anne Rice once pointing out that vampires are an excellent way to discuss the human condition since they are shamanic characters – human but outside humanity and thus able to speak it – which this show does very well.
Season two appears to be attempting to be a little more serious so far – I haven’t laughed as much as I did in season one so far in season two.
But Jason Stackhouse gets my vote for THE dumbest redneck in US history. I can already see him getting ready to hump the preacher’s wife – who is seriously hot if you like dumb Christian blonds LOL – and getting in all kinds of trouble as a result.
And the new waitress at Sam’s restaurant is clearly something more than she seems, like most of the characters.
And what is Maryann in reality? A witch? The pig her familiar? The consort of the god Pan as she hinted at one point? A demon? Or the Devil? She’s clearly there to upset the whole town, not just Sam.
True Blood is a great show and deserves every Emmy nomination that it might receive. Anna Paquin did win Best Actress last year against Sally Field. However, Glenn Close rightfully deserves Best Actress. She wasn’t nominated because Damages was on in 2008.
I mean Damages was not on in 2008. I apologize for the mistake. Anyway, It’s certainly generating a lot more buzz than Damages. Also, counting in OnDemand, True Blood does get around 7- 10 million viewers per week. I would also like to know season 2 of The Sopranos just to look at a comparison.
As for marketing? Well I saw several ads across cable networks and many, many billboards across Hollywood. HBO was even marketing it on broadcast networks. In fact, HBO even placed a front page ad in the LA Times, a move that was criticized and rightfully so. From Broadcasting & Cable, “HBO has made a huge marketing push behind True Blood, a bet that, at least initially, seems to have paid off.” http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/294649Cable_Ratings_True_Blood_Delivers_For_HBO.php. Also, according to USA Today marketers are really liking True Blood. Even Harley-Davidson has gotten into the act. “”We’re always looking for ways to do something unique and unexpected and break through the clutter,” says Mini marketing communications manager Kate Alini. “The show is thought-provoking and edgy. It’s a really good fit.”
And it’s a good vehicle for reaching viewers in the same target market. “This is a very cool, sexy, powerful brand,” says Dino Bernacchi, Harley-Davidson’s director, advertising, promotions and entertainment. “It’s youthful and powerful and has attitude and strength. That’s really a great partner for a brand like ours.” http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2009-05-25-fake-ads-true-blood_N.htm
Viewers have gotten sucked in, too.” So, Obviously Robert is wrong on the marketing and Watercooler front, because it’s generating a lot of buzz, and that USA Today article proves it!