Yes, soon it will be Oprah, “Dr” Phil, Today Show or Live with Regis and Kelly available on DVD. Why everything else will be on DVD. Comcast, in partnership with Lionsgate, will distribute popular series airing on E! Entertainment Television, The Style Network and G4 on DVD. Why not put Oprah, “Dr” Phil, Today Show or Live with Regis and Kelly on DVD? They are certainly more popular than anything on Style Network and more professionally done than on E!. To answer the question why G4, E! and Style to DVDs, lets go to the press release:
“E!, Style and G4 are among the hottest networks on television and our plans to transfer that excitement onto DVD will allow the consumer to watch these programs with a host of extra added features whenever they want,” Schwartz said. “Cutting edge programs like these reflect our overall commitment to daring, original entertainment and are perfect additions to our ever-increasing television library.”
Problem: What makes E! and G4 great are their timely topics, gossip, and news. I am a huge fan of G4, but Comcast is not willing to put full episodes of G4, E! or The Style Network programming on Hulu or their domains online. It is frustrating to hear that the only options will be through podcasts, torrents, or the 9 second sectioned off YouTube.
What makes Comcast greedy? They somehow believe that the low rating shows on The Style Network will be just as popular as other television programming. Stright form the press release:
The first program to be released under the new agreement is E!’s tanning salon reality series “Sunset Tan” on August 5. Additional releases will include E!’s popular series “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood,” as well as Style’s “Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane,” which takes viewers inside the world of model, mogul, mom Kimora Lee Simmons.
A leader in the TV on DVD category, Lionsgate has bucked the industry trend by experiencing double-digit growth from 2006 to 2007. The studio’s release of “Weeds” Season One and “Weeds” Season Two both finished the year in the Top 40 among all TV On DVD releases. 2008 is primed to be an even bigger year anchored by the June 3rd release of “Weeds” Season Three along with the release of the first season of the Golden Globes and Peabody award winning AMC series “Mad Men” and “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne”: Volume 2 on July 1. Other prestigious titles in the Lionsgate TV on DVD catalog include “Will & Grace,” “The Dead Zone,” “Moonlighting,” and much more.
How would anyone compare “Sunset Tan” with “Moonlighting”; “Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood” with “Will & Grace” or “Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane” with the same viewers as “Mad Men” or “Weeds”? It is just trailer trash. Looking to make a penny off poor programming.
Mind you, all the great G4 shows like “Ninja Warrior”, “X Play” or my favorite “Attack of the Show” are good for a two-time viewing, after that I just pop over to YouTube for all the best ciips. Better yet, I just go to the website for further information. On The Style Network, “Clean House” is worth a few gasps as we see how trashing people keep their homes, but once the reveal is done . . . I’m done. No need to call me surprised the second time. E! has the cult following “The Soup” but most of the mocking is only good for current programming, watching it on DVD will not allow you to program you TIVO. But they still don’t compare to those DVD television series that are selling.
Getting a DVD of the E! Entertainment Television, The Style Network and G4 programming is just poor thinking, misuse of energy and Comcast could be spending more time opening up torrent. One thing about buying a DVD is to have in your collection to watch over and over again, we have about 172 films. We actually watch them at least every two years or so . . . especially when one of is sick. Some in our collection are watched every year, “Firefly” is a winner.
The DVD’s are not worth sitting through a first time. Those who would get the DVDs already saw the show and who wants to fast forward to all the great bits. If there are no great bits, it is just outdated information and worth nothing even days later.
(great bit from Attack of the Show)
The great things about E! Entertainment Television, The Style Network and G4 have nothing to do with history or longevitiy . . . current news, gossip and well lets be honest technology. As a collaborate society we are already saying, “Anna Nicole Smith Who?”; never buy a 1G cell phones nor find ourselves dressing ‘so last year’.
This attempt to squeeze another fiver out of my bank account is going to be a failure and soon to be in the local bargain bin or some trailer trash DVD collection ends on Half.com for under a buck.
Bad idea Comcast . . . Just put it on Hulu.
