Warner Brothers has been promoting the celebration of their 50th Anniversary of creating great Television shows, and (as we've reported several times in the past) aims to make 2005 a great year full of releases of many of their classic shows. A new press release was distributed yesterday, and it mentioned one new show, Maverick. Here's the press release, courtesy of TVShowsOnDVD correspondent Pavan Badal, and we'll bold-face the Maverick reference lest it get buried. Below the text of the press release we continue with our story:
Warner Home Video Celebrates 50 Years of Television History from Warner Bros. Television with a Year-Long Promotion Featuring Today's Hit Shows and All-Time Classic Series
BURBANK, Calif. -- Dec. 27, 2004 -- In 2005, as Warner Bros. Television (WBTV) celebrates 50 years as the leader in television entertainment, Warner Home Video (WHV) is launching a year-long promotion featuring first-time-available and catalog DVD releases of WBTV hits. The studio-wide campaign will include DVD releases of series that date back to Maverick, one of WBTV's earliest series, continuing through to recent hits, and will feature special promotions for retailers and consumers.
Warner Bros. Television is the #1 supplier of scripted series programming with 1,700 television properties, including episodic series, telefilms and miniseries. WBTV supplies two or more shows to each of the six broadcast networks and produced 25 series on the primetime 2003-2004 schedule -- a record for the television industry.
Warner Home Video has been a market leader in DVD since the inception in 1997 and is the market share leader of TV on DVD.
Showcasing more than 30 television series from WBTV's historical run, the 2005 DVD campaign includes star-making shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which catapulted Will Smith to fame, and Full House, which debuted Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The first time release of highly rated shows such as Night Court and Murphy Brown, as well as subsequent season releases of Friends, West Wing and Smallville are included in the yearlong promotion.
"Warner Bros. has been a leader in producing exceptional television since the medium's inception," said Mike Saksa, WHV Senior Vice President, US Marketing. "Now, with the market growth of TV on DVD, retailers participating in the WBTV 50th Anniversary will benefit from a new generation of consumers who will experience these shows for the first time on DVD. TV on DVD offers retailers a unique commercial proposition of fast turning inventory with healthy margins. The 50th Anniversary is a retail solution to establishing dedicated space for the fastest growing segment of the packaged entertainment department."
WHV's year-long promotion will be driven by four promotional waves throughout 2005, each backed by comprehensive marketing efforts. The February 8th release of sitcoms from the '80s and '90s comprises the first wave and includes the complete first seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Full House, The Jamie Foxx Show, Murphy Brown, Night Court and The Wayans Bros. Additional promotional waves will follow in June, September and November.
The promotion, branded as "50 Years of Quality Television," will enable retailers to bring together large quantities of WBTV titles in 24- and 36-unit corrugate merchandisers. Permanent fixtures will also be made available to create in-store excitement.
Saksa commented, "Limited retail shelf space has challenged retailers to find unique ways to drive continued DVD category growth and profitability. These colorful WBTV 50th Anniversary displays will enable retailers with limited space to merchandise large quantities of TV on DVD titles without cannibalizing other DVD segments. Additionally, the unprecedented marketing support will drive awareness for these displays and enable a wide consumer demographic to effectively shop for their favorite TV on DVD title."
Consumers will be motivated to purchase multiple titles as they can earn up to $50 in mail-in rebates with specially marked DVD sets.
The excitement of the WBTV 50th Anniversary continues for consumers as WHV will feature free commemorative TV compilation DVDs, on pack select new releases throughout 2005 that contain never-before-released WBTV episodes. These commemorative discs will contain up to one hour of content and will feature episodes from top-rated WBTV classic and contemporary series to showcase the breadth of WBTV's library.
The studio-wide campaign will leverage the strengths of other Time Warner divisions with WHV to extend awareness for the expanding WBTV on DVD library.
- AOL will create a destination site to include a variety of interactive content and streaming clips.
- WBTV will execute "programming stunts" including an all-day marathon that features some of the top-rated shows from the 50 years of WBTV.
- Warner Bros. Consumer Products and WHV will partner to cross-promote the newly licensed "Scene-It" trivia game, exclusively themed to the 50 years of WBTV, through radio promotions.
WHV has developed a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to reach the core TV on DVD consumers including:
TV: NBC, Fox, The WB, Nick at Nite, TV Land, TBS
Print: People, Entertainment Weekly
Online: AOL, yahoo.com, thewb.com
With operations in 89 international territories, Warner Home Video, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, commands the largest distribution infrastructure in the global video marketplace. Warner Home Video's film library is the largest of any studio, offering top quality new and vintage titles from the repertoires of Warner Bros. Pictures, Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.
If it sounds big, that's because it is! And Maverick fans will find that the show, co-starring James Garner in earlier seasons and later on co-starring future 007 Roger Moore, is a big part of Warner's promo plans as well. Video Business trade magazine comments on that:
The other waves will hit in June, September and November. Maverick, one of Warner TV's earliest series, will be featured in the marketing and merchandising blitz sometime during the year, as will subsequent season DVD releases of Friends, West Wing and Smallville.
I know that many of us will be gunning for Maverick on DVD, and I'll also be gunning for that new edition of the "Scene It!" DVD-based board game as well (did everyone notice that mentioned on the third bullet point?). Stay tuned and we'll have more info about all of this, just as soon as its available.
  
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