The reason people don't buy TV shows is due to bad pricing and lackluster value.
I know a lot of people who wait to buy a TV series when it comes on DVD because they cannot understand why the sum of all episodes available for digital download costs the same as the DVD, when there are much lower expenses. Also they need to pay extra for any specials.
Hollywood and studios assume that people are willing to pay more for instant access than they pay for physical products. And there in lies the problem why very few people but TV shows a la carte.
On the people who download from p2p etc. a number of people would pay if the amount was lower, and within this group are a number of people who download from p2p now and buy the DVD when it has released.
This is also a big attraction for people waiting a year+ for a season to show up on netflix.
> I know a lot of people who wait to buy a TV series when it comes on DVD because they cannot understand why the sum of all episodes available for digital download costs the same as the DVD, when there are much lower expenses.
This sounds like an education problem: how do we make people understand that the cost of printing DVDs is negligible (in fact, practically nothing) in comparison to the efforts of hundreds if not thousands of trained individuals, tens of millions of dollars of specialized equipment, and the limited availability of their favorite actors?
To my knowledge the perceived expenses with DVD comes from the costs consumers think that comes from packaging, warehousing and sales.
To be honest I completely agree that this is not substantial and should not affect the costs and margins for the studios.
There is definitely an education problem, but the bigger issue is the consumption problem, that is, people who are willing and able to pay for digital downloads of TV shows are prepared to wait a few months - a year to buy a DVD or watch it on Netflix.
Sure we could try and educate these people about the minuscule difference in price. But chances are we would still fail to increase the perceived value.
And there in lies the problem and an opportunity to find a better delivery system.
