Eureka

It's an invalid argument... The DVD market is a sub-set of viewers who watched the series in broadcast and while the markets overlap, they don't collide. Yes... if someone buys the series collection they are less likely to watch a broadcast, but if they watch the series they are not less likely to buy the series collection DVD... If however they are disappointed by the series syndication in reruns, they are less likely to become enamored with the series to the extent they will buy the DVD collection. Fans buy DVDs... not casual viewers. If a series has little or no character or plotline development the show has a better chance of gaining new fans after the initial season showing than a series in which significant continuity is lost by viewing the episodes out of order.The argument that the series must be removed from the market for a DVD collection to be a viable sell is an assumption adopted by the "old school." It's a self-deluding myth and is based on a failure of logic... The reasoning goes like this:
"If the viewer sees it once they won't want to see it again and therefore they will watch re-runs in preference to buying the DVD..." huh?
It is rather well established that only fans of a show will buy the collection, and a fan will watch the same episodes many times after buying the collection, even in rebroadcast.A sub-set of fans will buy the DVD.
Shutting down the series in syndication prevents the cultivation of new fans.
A fan who enjoys the series enough to buy the DVD will not usually go pop the DVD in if an episode of the series comes on syndicated broadcast. Instead they sit happily and enjoy the rebroadcast and leave the purchased DVD in the case. So, basically the media old school really has no idea what it's doing and are passing up both the cultivation of a wider fan base, as well as reducing the advertising exposure, while failing to increase the sale of DVDs to anyone who was not inclined to buy them in the first place.   See 4 other replies