Post by threerandot on Apr 18, 2008 9:23:03 GMT -5
Hi. I am new to this message board. I discovered the Moonlighting Campaign quite a while back and was impressed with the success of bringing Moonlighting to DVD so successfully that i thought I would mimic the campaign for a Canadian Television Series, SCTV or sometimes known as "Second City Television".
Here is a link to my campaign site....
www.runstop.de/bennysplace/sctv/
Now, SCTV is a comedy show which began the careers of several Canadian Comic Actors, like John Candy, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin and several others. SCTV was a show that parodied a broadcasting day of a small, cheap TV Newtork known as SCTV. The program was all parodies of TV programming.
Now, over the years, SCTV has been in syndication, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that the series was released on DVD. When the series was produced, they usued a lot of recognizable popular music. To pay for the clearance of this music for the DVDs however was no easy task. Not all of the music was cleared by the studio that produced the DVDs, Shout! Factory.
It was my hope that if fans started a letter writing campaign like the fans for the Moonlighting Campaign did, it could make a difference. I saw the success of this campaign and thought if I could get some fans behind me, it would make a big difference.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the fans I was in touch with on the internet did not share my enthusiasm. I really don't understand exactly why they were so unwilling to participate in the campaign. I had hoped to get 3 or 4 other people to get involved and to promote the campaign. Somehow, they got scared or simply thought nothing could be done. My campaign website is still up, but I no longer update it. When you are a campaign of one its a lot more difficult to make a difference.
I also did research into the major obstacle facing SCTV on DVD, music clearance. The series had a lot of music it pardodied and satirized to clear. To clear music you must go to the publishers who represent the songwriters/performers, etc. Then the lovely business of negotiating a deal that will make everyone happy begins. Unfortunately, as many of you are probably aware, the cost of paying for music clearances can be astronomical. Literally thousands of dollars for a short 10 second cue. And it doesn't matter how long the music is. They can literally charge as much as they like.
I am just wondering if there is anything I did wrong or if there was something I could have done differently. I also wonder if there is still some way fans could make a difference for SCTV. The series has only been partially released on DVD and I really don't think sales were very good.
The situation for TV Shows on DVD in general has not been good either. There are many shows that have been released with all kinds of music cuts, edits and substitutions. Over the last 5 years, TV Shows on DVD have been very successful, but if you go to home theatre forum these days, the complaints about the cuts to TV Shows on DVD are growing.
It seems to me that there needs to be some kind of standard set of fees made for clearing music. Ultimately, the copyright holders in my view are given far too much control. I do realize that it is their intellectual property, but I personally feel that this isn't just a free market system, but more of a free for all.
I have written some articles on my views on copyright and done some research on the subject. If anyone wants to pass along their point of view on this subject, I would certainly appreciate any insights you may have.
The Moonlighting Campaign was probably more successful than the SCTV Campaign, simply because Moonlighting was a hit American show and SCTV was a small Canadian Show. I do not really expect any more success for SCTV. I guess at this point the best that can happen is more DVDs released with the music cuts.
I have however recorded all of my VHS tapes to DVD for my own use. That is only the Syndicated Version of the series which is shorter than the full length of the series. There is still SCTV material sitting in the can, so to speak that has never aired or been released since the day the program fist aired. One can hope something will come along to bail SCTV out of its sinking position. Heck, I don't think it is even on TV anywhere now.
Your thoughts, reflections, opinions, impressions, please. Thanks.
Here is a link to my campaign site....
www.runstop.de/bennysplace/sctv/
Now, SCTV is a comedy show which began the careers of several Canadian Comic Actors, like John Candy, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin and several others. SCTV was a show that parodied a broadcasting day of a small, cheap TV Newtork known as SCTV. The program was all parodies of TV programming.
Now, over the years, SCTV has been in syndication, but it wasn't until a couple of years ago that the series was released on DVD. When the series was produced, they usued a lot of recognizable popular music. To pay for the clearance of this music for the DVDs however was no easy task. Not all of the music was cleared by the studio that produced the DVDs, Shout! Factory.
It was my hope that if fans started a letter writing campaign like the fans for the Moonlighting Campaign did, it could make a difference. I saw the success of this campaign and thought if I could get some fans behind me, it would make a big difference.
Unfortunately, it turned out that the fans I was in touch with on the internet did not share my enthusiasm. I really don't understand exactly why they were so unwilling to participate in the campaign. I had hoped to get 3 or 4 other people to get involved and to promote the campaign. Somehow, they got scared or simply thought nothing could be done. My campaign website is still up, but I no longer update it. When you are a campaign of one its a lot more difficult to make a difference.
I also did research into the major obstacle facing SCTV on DVD, music clearance. The series had a lot of music it pardodied and satirized to clear. To clear music you must go to the publishers who represent the songwriters/performers, etc. Then the lovely business of negotiating a deal that will make everyone happy begins. Unfortunately, as many of you are probably aware, the cost of paying for music clearances can be astronomical. Literally thousands of dollars for a short 10 second cue. And it doesn't matter how long the music is. They can literally charge as much as they like.
I am just wondering if there is anything I did wrong or if there was something I could have done differently. I also wonder if there is still some way fans could make a difference for SCTV. The series has only been partially released on DVD and I really don't think sales were very good.
The situation for TV Shows on DVD in general has not been good either. There are many shows that have been released with all kinds of music cuts, edits and substitutions. Over the last 5 years, TV Shows on DVD have been very successful, but if you go to home theatre forum these days, the complaints about the cuts to TV Shows on DVD are growing.
It seems to me that there needs to be some kind of standard set of fees made for clearing music. Ultimately, the copyright holders in my view are given far too much control. I do realize that it is their intellectual property, but I personally feel that this isn't just a free market system, but more of a free for all.
I have written some articles on my views on copyright and done some research on the subject. If anyone wants to pass along their point of view on this subject, I would certainly appreciate any insights you may have.
The Moonlighting Campaign was probably more successful than the SCTV Campaign, simply because Moonlighting was a hit American show and SCTV was a small Canadian Show. I do not really expect any more success for SCTV. I guess at this point the best that can happen is more DVDs released with the music cuts.
I have however recorded all of my VHS tapes to DVD for my own use. That is only the Syndicated Version of the series which is shorter than the full length of the series. There is still SCTV material sitting in the can, so to speak that has never aired or been released since the day the program fist aired. One can hope something will come along to bail SCTV out of its sinking position. Heck, I don't think it is even on TV anywhere now.
Your thoughts, reflections, opinions, impressions, please. Thanks.