Trevor McKee

I've got 20 or so bucks left on a Suncoast gift card from Christmas, and I've been carefully deciding what to get. Recently, I have become interested in the new Battlestar Galactica series and investigated the price to find out that season 2 is like 22 bucks or something. At first I thought "wow, what a bargan". Then I realized that this was merely the first 10 episodes (first half) of the second season. I further investigated that episode 2.11 of the series aired only a week after the release of the part 1 dvd. I'm not complaining about the price, 22 bucks for half the season or 45 for the whole thing is six of one'. I'm just not entirely sure this is a smart marketing strategy for the show. We've all noticed the closing gap between the theatrical release of movies and their DVD releases, which in and of itself is causing problems for the motion picture industry. I find myself more and more unconcerned about seeing movies in the theatre due to their short dvd turnaround, and now I'm finding myself less and less inclined to watch some of my favorite shows on their first airing because of the short turnaround. How does this affect what shows get on the air? If say, ABC started releasing LOST in 2 or 3 volumes throughout the year, would the ratings plummet? If so, would TV networks find themselves scratching their heads as to why their ratings are down? Or, would DVD sales make up for lost advertising and show budgets remain the same. Somehow, I think the later is less likely.