Why no DVD of NFL games?

[ahmed]

Why doesn't the NFL put their games on DVD and sell them? Especially now in HD, they would look awesome?.

I know they have huge TV contracts and want to protect their rights blah blah... but what would be the harm in say selling the games on DVD a couple years after the season?

I know I would buy a lot of them. I download some but it's just not the same.

 

[mcsully]

Why doesn't the NFL put their games on DVD and sell them? Especially now in HD, they would look awesome?.

I know they have huge TV contracts and want to protect their rights blah blah... but what would be the harm in say selling the games on DVD a couple years after the season?

I know I would buy a lot of them. I download some but it's just not the same.

Probably so they can show the games on the NFLN

 

[edgeofepic]

I agree with you. They ought to sell season sets and put them on sale right around Thanksgiving each year. I think they'd sell well. Up until a few years ago most NFL teams would sell a 1-2 hour "recap" video at the conclusion of each season. They started with VHS then switched to DVD. Unfortunately, I don't think they make them anymore unless your team wins the super bowl. It's an untapped market... the NFL is leaving cash on the table.

 

[brdmaverick]

The reason is that there isn't enough demand from us football diehards to warrant a mass production of such dvds.

If you recall, production of the "10 Greatest Games in Patriots History" was abruptly cut. I suspect this is due to the demand not meeting the expectation necessary to warrant the cost. That's really unfortunate because I know I would love to own that DVD.

 

[sbpatfan]

I think the major problem would be selling the DVDs to fans of teams that didn't win the Superbowl. Doubt there's much interest outside of hardcore fans.

 

[jmt57]

I don't hink it is so much about production costs - the cost of duplicating videos is pretty low at this point - but probably has more to do with lack of demand. Of the people who are interested, many are probably already recording those games on a DVR at home.


On a side note, the 'Patriots 2009 yearbook' is on espn2 tonight at 8:30 if you are interested.

 

[ahmed]

^^^ I am in Canada so no ESPN for me.

I understand not buying the entire season with the losses but they could at least sell the games each team won. Even if the demand is low, given the fact that the cost of putting already made film on DVDs or Blu-rays is pretty low, I think there is money to be made there.

 

[Ryan]

They could definitely do more classic games sets for each team than they do now. Seriously, every NFL team has a lot of great games in their history. I know they have a "Greatest Games" series but it's not cutting it. All the Patriots fans have to go back and watch are the 3 Games to Glory DVDs if we want to watch classic games, and those aren't even in actual TV format (not that they're bad or anything). I'd love to be able to watch games from the 70's, 80's, 90's and some of the games from the 2000's that get lost in the shuffle.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Lets look at the demand graph here.....

"Diehard fans that didn't program their DVR to record the game and don't have any friends who DVRed it and would be willing to burn them a copy."

 

[TrueBeliever]

I was one of the few apparently still buying those Patriots highlight films on VHS and later DVD. I have all of them from 1996-2002, and a few others from before then, as well as the ones for SBs 38 and 39.

And I agree that NFL Network should be showing more of those classic old games. For example I'd like to see the Patriots-Vikings game in '94. I do have a VHS copy I bought from a guy on eBay, but the quality isn't very good (not that I expected much.)

Anyway, maybe in the future they'll start doing what some movie studios are doing with less popular movies, making DVDs of them on an "on demand" basis. I.e., they list which ones they have, you send them 20 bucks or whatever, they burn a DVD of it just for you.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

The reason is that there isn't enough demand from us football diehards to warrant a mass production of such dvds.

If you recall, production of the "10 Greatest Games in Patriots History" was abruptly cut. I suspect this is due to the demand not meeting the expectation necessary to warrant the cost. That's really unfortunate because I know I would love to own that DVD.

Then they should stream them online. I'm one of the fans that like to re-visit games from the past. The NFL could make people pay a monthly fee to watch games from the past weekend to early NFL games. It's a win-win for everyone for several reasons:

* The NFL doesn't have to put much money in producing a bunch of DVD's for only die hard fans
* They get a residual income from fans
* The NFL can have a contract with TV networks to give them a cut as well
* We get to watch any game from the past

 

[TrueBeliever]

Actually just last week I got an e-mail from NFL.com about some service you can subscribe to where you can watch old regular season games online, but I think it's only for that season's games, as well as watch preseason games live. I don't remember many of the details because I wasn't going to sign up so I deleted the e-mail.

 

[brdmaverick]

Then they should stream them online. I'm one of the fans that like to re-visit games from the past. The NFL could make people pay a monthly fee to watch games from the past weekend to early NFL games. It's a win-win for everyone for several reasons:

* The NFL doesn't have to put much money in producing a bunch of DVD's for only die hard fans
* They get a residual income from fans
* The NFL can have a contract with TV networks to give them a cut as well
* We get to watch any game from the past

Trust me, you'll get no complaints from me. Count me in as one of the people looking to get this kind of access to games. I even went further in another thread hoping that coach's film would be released (so we can REALLY break down a play instead of following just the ball).