Quirke (Gabriel Byrne) -- Another UK series released in Germany and not the UK

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Buzz201

Some of those examples are unfair, Arrow charge a lot for their blu-ray releases, and they only come down in price during clearances, if BBCW charged those kinds of prices shit would hit the fan and the papers would accuse them of blatant profiteering for content people "have already paid for", where as BBCW's price points are more reasonable.

Acorn only released Broadchurch several months after the DVD release, as demand had been proven, much to the annoyance of some on this forum, despite the fact the series was a sleeper hit, and by the time Acorn realised this it was probably too late to do anything...

One would also note, Sherlock, Mrs. Brown's Boys and Broadchurch all achieve very high ratings for their respective networks, The Fall got high ratings for it's respective networks. Quirke did alright, similar viewership figures to The Fall, but as a miniseries perhaps alright wasn't good enough...

I wouldn't say it's unfair necessarily. BBC releases often seem to approach £20 or more initially, which is usually right around what Arrow charge for a similar amount of programming. The difference is that Arrow's releases stay expensive for much longer, and BBC releases tend to drop significantly in price and stay inexpensive afterwards. That's about what one would expect when comparing releases from small labels, with those from one of the nation's largest.

The Broadchurch release is rather telling, though. I remember how many people were upset, because they had bought the DVD assuming there would be no Blu-ray. After all, Acorn releases popular series like the seventh series of Foyle's War on DVD-only in the UK.

And matters of ratings don't explain why a series like Luther or Happy Valley go unreleased on Blu-ray, and why a series like Top Gear only gets specials released (though perhaps there is an unrelated reason for that). In general, it seems like most adult-oriented content (not that Top Gear is adult-oriented) is skipped over, because the BBC must think that Blu-ray is only for hip, young series, like In the Flesh.

[Buzz201]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

I wouldn't say it's unfair necessarily. BBC releases often seem to approach £20 or more initially, which is usually right around what Arrow charge for a similar amount of programming. The difference is that Arrow's releases stay expensive for much longer, and BBC releases tend to drop significantly in price and stay inexpensive afterwards. That's about what one would expect when comparing releases from small labels, with those from one of the nation's largest.

The Broadchurch release is rather telling, though. I remember how many people were upset, because they had bought the DVD assuming there would be no Blu-ray. After all, Acorn releases popular series like the seventh series of Foyle's War on DVD-only in the UK.

And matters of ratings don't explain why a series like Luther or Happy Valley go unreleased on Blu-ray, and why a series like Top Gear only gets specials released (though perhaps there is an unrelated reason for that). In general, it seems like most adult-oriented content (not that Top Gear is adult-oriented) is skipped over, because the BBC must think that Blu-ray is only for hip, young series, like In the Flesh.

The first series of In The Flesh was excellent, I have the second banked up ready to watch. And it's an 18 rated BAFTA winning show, so perhaps more "adult orientated" than you think...

And the BBC have released the original House of Cards Trilogy on blu-ray, I'm not even sure that was "hip and young" in it's day, never mind now...

[McCrutchy]

The back cover is now up at Amazon.de:

Note that the German release will include English audio and English subtitles.

[Funktion]

If this release is indeed uncut, I will be picking it up.

And in other news, another BBC Show, Merlin, is getting a big boxset in the US with all seasons included. So far, no release in the UK was announced, so it seems it will be one more Blu-Ray release that won't make to its country of origin (so many examples: Hours: Series Two was released on BD in the US, unlike the UK; ...).

[Erasmus Craven]

Please be aware that Polyband releases, although offering English audio and subs, usually have German onscreen text (i.e. Sherlock: all onscreen text like phone messages or Sherlock's derivations/conclusions/thoughts will be in German only). I've not seen this particular show and thus don't know how much of an issue it would be in this case - just a heads up for Polyband releases in general.

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Erasmus Craven

Please be aware that Polyband releases, although offering English audio and subs, usually have German onscreen text (i.e. Sherlock: all onscreen text like phone messages or Sherlock's derivations/conclusions/thoughts will be in German only). I've not seen this particular show and thus don't know how much of an issue it would be in this case - just a heads up for Polyband releases in general.

Thanks for the heads up. I doubt it will be much of a problem here. A series like Sherlock is clearly worth localizing in European markets, but this show is considerably smaller, so I wouldn't be surprised if nothing is changed.

Either way, being in full 1080/50i with lossless audio easily trumps a German title or two. Of course, I'd snap up a domestic release, but I doubt that would happen, after the fact and all.

[McCrutchy]

The German BD set has just dropped to €20,99 on Amazon.de in advance of its release tomorrow.