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18 December 2008 @ 04:09 pm
Navarre pulls plug on BCI, Home Video Apocalypse begins.  
Yep, crap in a HAT, man.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13949.html

I know, I know, so what, who cares if the company that put out He-Man and Ark II and Shadow Warriors and Red Baron goes belly-up? It's not anime or even important mainstream stuff.

But see, it's the niche product that MATTERS. It's stuff like this people get excited about because you just don't see it on TV. New season of House coming out? Well, it'll hit syndication soon enough. Why buy the sets of Friends episodes when the damn thing is running 6 times a day SOMEWHERE in every market?

But man, when was the last time you flipped channels and *SHUWAT* Ultraman was on?

And nobody, NOBODY is talking about the real reason why sales of DVDs are down. THERE'S FEWER PLACES THAT SELL DEEP CATALOG AND NICHE DVD's!! You want a copy of The Dark Knight? Easy-peasy. You want to buy Iron King? Good luck.

"Ahh, you SAP! NOOOOBODY buys in a store anymore! that's a sucker's game! All the COOL people buy online and constantly hunt to save the maximum amount possible, you DORK!"

If this were true, AND IT'S NOT, there would be no problem at all. But for those idiot people with their noses in the air about shopping in the real world, guess what? That's STILL the major driving force in retail.

And now YOU won't be able to buy BCI's catalog because too many stores have closed and those that remain are cutting back their stock to just New Releases, Top Evergreen titles and whatever package deals the studios put together each couple of months.

Dammit. and I was REALLY waiting for Navarre/BCI to whip out the follow-on to Red Baron, Mach Baron.
 
 
Current Mood: aggravated
 
 
( 9 comments — Post a new comment )
Dave Merrill[info]davemerrill on December 18th, 2008 09:45 pm (UTC)
All this time the question I've been asking myself is, "How do they manage to make money releasing Red Baron and Iron King on DVD in the United States?" And the answer is, "They don't."
Steve Harrison[info]tochiro998 on December 18th, 2008 11:19 pm (UTC)
well, yes. Sadly, yes. Of course, you know my other rant, about publicity and promotion and having a website that WORKS and has updated info and stuff.

I mean, there should have been ads in Otaku USA pimping the hell out of Red Baron. It's a great show!

But I don't want all that Filmation stuff to just go away.

Here's the thing. BCI was thought immune because while they did produce niche, boutique product, it was more mainstream, tapping into nostalgia markets. The sales of He-Man helped cushion Red Baron. Blah blah blah, right?

Next year, Funimation will likely be spun off on their own again. They've JUST taken on a HUGE load of stuff (the ex-ADV Sojitz titles and revived Geneon)and I bet Dollars to donuts that's utterly flipped their profit/loss ratio.
Kimiden[info]kimiden on December 18th, 2008 11:59 pm (UTC)
Yeah, I was hoping the column I did would boost some interest but alas, I guess it fell on deaf ears.

Coupled with the passing of Majel Roddenberry's passing, this day's kinda sucked >_>
Steve Harrison[info]tochiro998 on December 19th, 2008 02:13 am (UTC)
what? WHAT? The deuce you say!

DAMMIT!

I always felt sorry for Majel with no real reason why, then as I read more over the years about Horndog Gene...well, I guess it was always her choice.

2008! stop killing people!
Matt Ceccato: Monarch[info]mpceccato on December 19th, 2008 12:38 pm (UTC)
This indeed sucks. I've seen some of the Filmation product BCI put out on DVD and they were done very well. The "Jason of Star Command" package is excellent and it's a damn shame nobody produces kiddie TV like that anymore. While they may not get rich doing stuff like this, it was nice to know there was someone out there who cared about what the audience wanted.

(And for the record, I still stop in brick and mortar stores.)
danno![info]tohoscope on December 19th, 2008 02:22 pm (UTC)
Well crap. a good chunk of my DVD money has gone to BCI over the years. Hell, the only place you used to find any Filmation was bootlegged before BCI. It's a damn shame.
Steve Harrison[info]tochiro998 on December 19th, 2008 07:03 pm (UTC)
I think the overall problem is, just like the anime biz, Navarre made the mistake thinking that the success of some product (like the highly desired He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) meant that EVERYTHING they would release would have the same success.

But it's ALL niche product, feeding the nostalgia market, and sales by their very nature would be uneven. AND YOU GOTTA PROMOTE IT.

Now, maybe I'm just not reading the right magazines,or enough of them, but it seems to me that the prime market for these shows, the geek market, means that there should be constant ads in Wizard, Toyfare, Anime Insider, Sci Fi Universe (is that the name?) and Otaku USA. And it would have helped a LOT if they had a decent website.

But what do I know?
Steve Harrison[info]tochiro998 on December 19th, 2008 07:17 pm (UTC)
and an update from TV on DVD.com.

http://tvshowsondvd.com/news/Site-News-BCI-Shut-Down/11064

Or maybe more like a more in depth explaining.

MAN those suits love their five Dollar words and slippery structure, don't they?
[info]theangryotaku.blogspot.com on December 23rd, 2008 05:11 am (UTC)
The Angro Otaku comment
Thanks for the comment. Penned a reply but it's a bit long so I didn't want to just post it here out of the blue (also it's a bit martial arts centric, since that was the universe I was coming from... Seeing people standing on the deck of a label sinking like the Titanic brings back memories).