Content Distributor Discovers Niche DVD Market Alive in Streaming Era

By Karla Robinson
November 14, 2012

“A lot of people are falsely calling for the demise of the DVD business,” says Bob Emmer, co-founder of content distributor Shout! Factory. In fact, DVDs are still a vital source of revenue, he adds.
“Emmer explained that while overall DVD sales have declined, there is still enough demand for niche products, such as classic TV shows and movies, to serve a loyal constituency,” reports MarketWatch. “Some of this content hasn’t been released, or was issued in a perfunctory manner early in the life of the DVD format.”
“I don’t have to sell 3 million units,” Emmer says. “We’re okay with far fewer unit sales because we don’t have a lot of overhead, and the numbers bear that out. We’ve been on the incline with this type of product over the last seven or eight years.”
His company Shout has released complete-series DVD sets of “All In The Family,” “Leave It To Beaver,” “Route 66,” “Barney Miller,” “Freaks and Geeks,” “The Larry Sanders Show” and “My So-Called Life.”
Some of the series were previously released but were abandoned following weak sales. A few studios and other distributors have also started re-releasing DVD sets of TV shows.
“There’s a market out there for almost anything,” Emmer says. “People don’t always consider how many consumers are out there who don’t have a high-speed Internet connection.”

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