Dinah Shore show Nov 9, 1958

[Steve Hoffman]

Because they would lose money on the 64 copies they would sell.

Artwork would have to be created, royalties paid, manufacturing, mastering, etc.

It's a glum time for us lovers of this stuff..

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman

Because they would lose money on the 64 copies they would sell.

Artwork would have to be created, royalties paid, manufacturing, mastering, etc.

It's a glum time for us lovers of this stuff..

It could be streamed through Netflix or Amazon with little manufacturing cost.

[Phil Nelson]

I suspect that Steve's right. Their customer list is big kahunas like PBS, The Tonight Show, and the like. Small fry like you and me probably aren't worth their time, streaming or not.

Also, these guys are more like middlemen. They market and restore content, but they don't own it. Here's a piece of fine print from one of their pages:

"Research Video Inc. is an authorized agency with exclusive represenation rights for over 100 television programs, TV series, private film collections and video footage archives on behalf of the official copyright holders and original producers."

So, if you want DVDs of all the old Flip Wilson shows, you can hire them as an agent to negotiate with the rights owners, but they can't just toss all that content up on Amazon or Youtube.

Phil Nelson

[Steve Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

I suspect that Steve's right. Their customer list is big kahunas like PBS, The Tonight Show, and the like. Small fry like you and me probably aren't worth their time, streaming or not.

Also, these guys are more like middlemen. They market and restore content, but they don't own it. Here's a piece of fine print from one of their pages:

"Research Video Inc. is an authorized agency with exclusive representation rights for over 100 television programs, TV series, private film collections and video footage archives on behalf of the official copyright holders and original producers."

So, if you want DVDs of all the old Flip Wilson shows, you can hire them as an agent to negotiate with the rights owners, but they can't just toss all that content up on Amazon or Youtube.

Phil Nelson

It's even more complicated than that. The musicians in the orchestra would all have to be paid again. Renegotiated with the union. Each of the guest stars' estates would have to be paid again, royalty fees would have to be worked out with legal, etc.

I'm tellin' ya, a nightmare. I had a long meeting with the late Andy Williams about putting 40 of his best shows out on DVD in 2000, complete, commercials, NBC peacock, everything. Andy signed off on the deal. The nightmare of clearances worked out to the sad realization that we would have lost money on each and every DVD sold. Just can't be done..

[Phil Nelson]

Originally Posted by Steve Hoffman

It's even more complicated than that.

Out of curiosity, I emailed that company and later had a chat with a guy who works there. The copyright issues are truly daunting. The audience for such material is very limited and the cost of production dwarfs the return. They provided the restored video for a special on Dinah Shore, which aired on PBS (and "tanked," to use his term).

VHS copies of that show, with some bonus material, are still available on the used market:

http://www.amazon.com/MWAH-Best-Dina...dp/B0015A07MK/

This is later material than the clip mentioned at the beginning of this thread, of course.

Phil Nelson