Starting in August of 1999, Paramount Home Video began releasing episodes of the original Star Trek television series on DVD. Each volume contained two episodes and had a list price of twenty dollars (although Amazon discounted them down to eighteen). They released two volumes at a time, issuing the last volume in December of 2001. Fans of the show had to pony up $800 for all forty volumes (or, $720 if they used Amazon – not counting the shipping charges). That’s a pretty hefty chunk of change, even if it was spread out over close to two and a half years.
Three years later, Paramount decided to take another shot at fan money and began releasing boxed sets. In August 2004 they released the first season, followed shortly by the second season in November and the third, and final, season in December. Each of these boxed sets had a list price of $130 (although you could get them for $97 from Amazon). So you could own the entire series with additional features for only $390 (or $291 if inclined to shop online).
At the same time they released the third season, Paramount released a jumbo set containing all three seasons. This monster of a purchase had a list price of $380 (or $266 from Amazon).
- Shell out $800/$720 over 28 months
- Wait five years and then shell out $390/$291 over four months
- Wait a little more than five years and then shell out $380/$266 at once
So if a fan had known in advance, way back in August of 1999, they could have just put aside five bucks a month and had enough to buy all the episodes when they were released en masse in December of 2004. To sate their thirst in the interim they could have used Netflix to rent each volume as it was released (1999 was the year that Netflix started). But that’s assuming that Paramount was up front with the fans about the different combinations they would be releasing. Instead, a lot of fans probably ended up spending more than $700 to get their hands on all the episodes (and considering the size of the Trekkie contingent, I’m sure there were many people who fell into this category). So congratulations to Paramount for squeezing as much money as they could from fans.
Why do I care? Well, after my recent conversion to fanboy status (of the Firefly variety), I have a lot more sympathy towards other fan groups. It just seems sleazy that corporations would take advantage of someone’s passion. But hey, that’s what the free market is good for.
Why did I do this anaylsis? Well, I was playing around on Amazon and doing searches for science-fiction television shows, trying to get a feel for how much it would cost per episode to own a complete series, and the sheer number of DVDs that were listed for the original TV run of Star Trek surprised me (I didn't think there were that many episodes). One thing led to another, and this is the end result.
Oh, and the cost per episode thingie? I never did get around to finishing that... (Just a little teaser: Firefly - $2.50 an episode, Original Star Trek - $3.37 an episode).
