24 - 24's TV-on-DVD success leads to new DVD concepts

Last quarter we speculated about how high sales of the 24 - Season 1 DVD set had resulted in higher interest in the broadcasts of the show during it's second season. Four months later, at the TV-DVD Conference held today in Los Angeles, it was confirmed that the DVD sales had a direct impact on the growing poplularity of the show.

Since then, 24 - Season 2 has been released, and to similar success. So how do those DVD sales help the show grow THIS time around? Well, Video Store Magazine has this report that the show will branch out into a whole new series of Direct-to-DVD 24 features:

Joel Surnow, creator of hit real-time drama "24," and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment are in the early stages of creating a series of direct-to-video projects that will carry the "24" brand and real-time concept, Surnow said during his keynote speech at today's TV-on-DVD conference hosted by Video Store Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter and the Digital Entertainment Group.

...Surnow and Fox Home Entertainment are cooking up a potential series of feature-length or even miniseries-length programs that will follow "24's" real-time concept and hit DVD without ever airing on broadcast television.

"It's still in the very initial stages," Surnow said. "But we are looking at ideas like a two-hour hostage situation or a rescue drama or an emergency-room story."

The programs would not necessarily feature the same cast and crew of "24," Surnow said, but will run on their own production schedule at the same time "24" is filming.

"24" as a concept is really built for DVD, Surnow acknowledged, in part because it is the type of show people don't want to wait a week to see the next episode of.

...DVD, in particular, has been a boon to his show, Surnow admitted. He attributes much of "24's" more than 25 percent growth in viewership for the second season to the fact that the complete set to the first season came out before season two aired and saw such success on DVD.

"The DVD sales also helped justify the kind of money we have to spend to make the show," Surnow said.

With Warner's announcement that shows like The O.C. and Nip/Tuck will come to DVD to help promote their upcoming seasons, you can see that the pioneering road taken by 24 has had a lasting impact on the way the TV-on-DVD market is handled. With this new announcement, it looks like 24 is exploring new frontiers yet again!