The Official Season 18 DVD Thread (December 5, 2017)

I imagine there will be a limited-edition physical release of all seasons, at the proper end of the series, with S18 to the last season being thrown together with impromptu menus and minimal features, just to round out the series and have a comprehensive and interesting collector's item for fans.
 
i seriously doubt that. if we get anything it will be a complete series set that no rational human being would buy
 
what if the internet for fans goes out or their computers have to go to the shop, they wouldn't be able to watch the episodes from seasons 18-26.

so..while the internet is temporarily down, people won't be able to watch some of the episodes? i think they'll live

but anyway, as someone mentioned already, fox is pushing hard for FXX to be successful. it's why they put their most popular FX sitcoms at the time (always sunny, the league) onto a channel that wasn't widely available at all. it's why they finally syndicated the simpsons and made it available online, and it's why they won't sell DVDs for a while (more incentive for people to want FXX, so more incentive for cable providers to provide it). this isn't new for fox either. they have multiple sports channels that 99% of people wouldn't give a fuck about but that fox gets included on cable packages by leveraging stuff people actually do care about. it's why cable costs so much and it's bullshit. i can't wait for the whole cable empire to implode and for there to be a real a la carte option out there.
 
Instead of replying to this DVD thread that will never come out, why not just make a season 18 commentary thread and continue on with a season 19 commentary thread.
 
KOTH stopped coming out because the DVDs had piss sales. simpsons is done because DVDs are becoming defunct in the mainstream. companies are still releasing them, but they're a lot less popular, especially with TV shows. it doesn't help that the simpsons DVDs use expensive packaging and come with a lot of special features. if they are eventually released then you can be sure most, if not all of this stuff will be gone
 
The Simpsons - Are the sales really that bad? No, they aren’t
66,000 is good, not poor
Posted by Gord Lacey
7/29/2015


For those of you hoping for good news, we're sorry, instead you'll find the op-ed piece below.

Al Jean, showrunner on The Simpsons made news back in April when he tweeted that they wouldn't release any more seasons of the show on DVD or Blu-ray. At the time that didn't make sense to us, so we went digging and guess what? It still doesn't make sense.

The Simpsons wrapped their 26th season in May, and have amassed a huge following over the years. Fans want to own the show on DVD, and Fox has released seasons 1-17, and season 20 on the format, starting in 2001 with the release of season 1. There's a gap between seasons 17 and 20 because Fox released season 20 on DVD and BD shortly after it aired in 2010, and they haven't gone back to fill in the hole, and it appears they never would.

It's no secret that DVD sales have dropped off, with many turning to streaming formats (also, because most of the good stuff has already been released), but it's a bit shocking that sales of The Simpsons would get to the point where they can't be released. The past few years has seen the rise of "Manufacture-on-Demand" (MOD) releases for shows that aren't popular enough for pressed discs, but still have enough of a following to turn a profit for the studios. Fox has released a number of shows on the MOD format, using it for shows that weren't as successful as they had hoped, but still want to release for fans. This is definitely an avenue that they could explore for The Simpsons, but they really shouldn't have to.

The fact is, The Simpsons DVDs are selling well enough that they should continue to be released on DVD. Season 17, which was released on December 2, 2014 has sold 55,032 copies on DVD, and 11,421 copies on Blu-ray according to Videoscan numbers (week ending July 12), and that's just for North America (don't forget The Simpsons is a global brand). I asked a studio representative at another company what he thought of those numbers and his response was "We would kill to have titles that sold like that." Yes, those numbers are approximately half of the sales of season 16, but the numbers are still excellent given the market today. I think there's more to this story than "sales numbers are poor." Maybe their sales expectations are too high and they would rather make no money off DVD sales than less money.

Something isn't adding up here because 66,000+ units of a show shouldn't be considered "poor sales." Fox, or Gracie films (whichever controls the DVD releases) should release this on DVD, release it as a MOD title, or they should license it to a third party; apparently there are companies willing to kill for those numbers.

If someone from the show wants to reach out and correct any of this information, we'd be more than happy to include it here.


Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Simpsons-simpsons-sales-numbers-examined/21379#ixzz3hK3HV8HX
 
This DVD/blu-ray saga has been so fucking weird. The series was touted as the best selling TV show on DVD back in the day, I even have DVD inserts to prove it. While I totally understand that sales declined once the golden era was released, the latter teen seasons were still pulling good numbers. My only guesses are:

• FXX and Simpsons World somehow was the sole reason, not due to it cutting into sales, but a contract stipulation stated that FOX Home Entertainment and other third party companies could not release any more titles. This, I feel, is the most likely. Yeah, it sounds shady as fuck, but it would make the most sense.

• FOX got greedy, they wanted seasons 16+ to sell closer to seasons 1-10. Even though the numbers were good, they were not up to FOX's lofty (and unreasonable) expectations.

• The price of DVD production cost too much. Not the discs, but the fully animated menus, the original art, the double sided panorama on the DVD boxes. Honestly, if production cost was the issue, I would have been totally cool with static menus and stripped down cases with the usual plastic box and a slipcover.

It boggles my mind still that FOX ceased production when lesser shows have enjoyed MOD DVD releases. Let's not kid ourselves, modern Simpsons on MOD DVD would sell just as well, if not better than, most of FOX's other MOD titles.

It only looks worse when Al admits this is the first time he has seen the numbers, makes me truly think it was some FXX contract stipulation. If not, then why not go the MOD DVD route or give another company the contract to release seasons 18+? Doesn't FOX want money?
 
so they're probably gonna end up releasing the rest of the series anyway huh? how unexciting
 
I feel like fox just stopped releasing them because they want people to watch the reruns on fxx, instead of buying the dvd. I am currently in the process of making seasons 18 and 19 on dvd for myself, designing even cover art and disc art, and menus, screw live tv.
 
The Commentaries are really what i want
Those, and the deleted scenes, but Fox's MOD releases of other shows don't even have those (for example, the recent American Dad release) - just episodes. Considering how often FXX airs every episode, you might as well record them onto your DVR.
 
If the Simpsons ends at season 30, and there is a large DVDs set, that would cost lots of money. At LEAST each season would be $10, so that is already $300, but If each season is $30, that's $900, which is a lot. Also, if they just release one large boxset, people who own 1-17 and 20 already would have to buy them again just to get seasons 18, 19, and 21+
 
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