Sometimes you can learn an awful lot from the comments, even at 2am on a Monday morning! Earlier I'd written a long post about whether serial dramas were on their way out at the broadcast networks. My conclusion was not yet. And that's still my conclusion. But there were some interesting points made in the comments.
Commenter "thedemonhog" brought up an important distinction between heavily serialized shows and shows that also have a lot of complex mythology (like Lost). And commenter "Vincent" presupposed that DVD sales for serialized shows ought to be much better than for procedurals.
The data backs up the thinking.
In 2009 the top TV Show DVDs (based on revenue):
- True Blood S1 ($61 million)
- The Office S5 ($30 million)
- Lost S5 ($29 million)* (was only available for ~3 weeks during 2009!)
- Heroes S3 ($25 million)
- Grey's Anatomy S5 ($23 million)
- 24 S7 ($22 million)
- Family Guy S7 ($19 million)
- Dexter S3 ($17 million)
- Smallville S8 ($16 million)
- Southpark S12 ($15 million)
So it looks like there is something to be said for the correlation between serialized drama and DVD sales. How to explain The Office? One commenter, "Jrock" suggests that part of the popularity of The Office was that it is pretty serialized, at least as far as 30 minute sitcoms go. "The Jim and Pam love story had a great “hook” that kept viewers wanting more..."
its great to see that although serialized shows are failing in the tv ratings, DVD sales are an alternative way for this show to bounce back
He’ll ya Heroes!!!!!! A show that can’t get 4 million live viewers gets over 25 millon in DVD sales = people r watchin Heroes !!!!!!!!
Robert I’m way off topic here—but can you give me a number in regard to the ad sales you do here? This after all is a site thats based on ratings and what it corresponds with revenue. I have a hard time knowing if the ads i see are not paying you unless I click them.
Roland,
Some of our ad deals pay us the same regardless of whether you click or not, and some of them pay more if you click. In the end, a higher click through rate is better for us, though, so please click.
Tell your friends!
Robert is heroes coming back next season !!!!!!!!
if NBC were a normal network not in a state of escalating ratings carnage I’d say “signs point to no.” But because it is on NBC, I’ll just say “Reply Hazy, Ask Again Later”
Lost S5 DVD has truly awesome revenue!
How much did True Blood S1 DVD earn in the firt 3 weeks?
Altair, about the same, $28.2 million. A tiny bit less, but Lost had benefit of being available for more than two weeks during peak Christmas shopping season.
Both = awesome
I own three of the top sets and all off these I while in the air that is cool means there is greater chance of my favorite shows not to get cancelled! The shows were 24, Smallville and True Blood
I don’t know if you’ve done a post on this in the past, but part of my problem with understanding the economics of television shows is being unclear on the breakdown between the different revenue streams–advertising from original telecasts, syndication, DVD sales, foreign sales. When guessing on the chances of Heroes being renewed, for instance, many point to DVD and foreign sales, but how substantial are those pieces really–large enough to keep a relative failure going? It would also help us understand the economics of a show like House, the largest international hit, with Grey’s Anatomy, not so much of one.
Just my request for the day.
I would argue that all but Family Guy & South Park are serialized. The Office is FOR SURE serialized (but in a way that welcomes newcomers).
Rich, your answer is at http://www.thefutoncritic.com/rant.aspx?id=20091006_10things.
yay for heroes!!!!!!!!!
Anyone know how TSCC did?
That futoncritic link is very informative from an industry perspective, but not all that helpful when looking at an individual show. Serialized dramas represent a very small portion of the overall broadcast/cable schedule. The ad revenue noted in that link represents the entire schedule including live sports broadcasts. There aren’t many people purchasing sports-related DVDs. Foreign and DVD sales absolutely are a major factor when evaluating shows like Heroes. LOST could tank in the ratings but still stay profitable with its DVD sales.
Robert, it would be really interesting to find out (if you have the numbers) what the procedurals do on DVD. How much are NCIS and Law Order SVU making via DVD? The answer to that question right there might tell us why studios keep trying to make serial dramas.
way too much work for my little bit of interest. But you can comb the weekly data at the-numbers.com if you’re interested. some do pretty well, just not well enough to make the top 100 DVDs of the year list (most of which are movie DVDs).
Thanks, Robert. I’ll look into it when I get some time on the weekend. Let you know if I find anything interesting. And I will try and get my decimal places right this time.
The “Dexter” DVD sales numbers are really impressive, especially when you consider that each season only has 12 episodes and thus you can typically buy each season for about $20 (as opposed to a more expensive set like “Heroes”). Of course, I’m sure the strong sales of the show also have to do with the fact that not that many people have a subscription to Showtime, so they just watch the show on DVD.
Yeah, people aren’t just watching The Office for comedy, it’s to see what happens next. It has pretty well-defined story arcs. But it’s written in a way that it doesn’t bog itself down with all the continuity – it’s still easy to jump in at any point.
But The Office is definitely a show where you would pick up the DVD and watch it in order from start to finish, because there’s definitely a continuing story there.
On another note, Heroes continues to do well in every medium except TV. Makes sense, since the sluggish storytelling makes it pretty weak to watch on a weekly basis, but renting the DVDs and watching them steadily (as I have been doing) fixes some of the show’s problems, definitely.