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When we first told you that Fraggle Rock - Where It All Began: Special Edition was coming to DVD on October 19th (this past Tuesday), we said "it won't be limited to any particular chain this time" (the original, non-special edition was a Wal-Mart exclusive).

The 10/18 edition of Video Business magazine reports otherwise. According to their "Fraggle Rock Staggers Its Release" story (free registration required), the 10/19 release was "through a limited number of retail and online outlets". Named in the article was "music chain TransWorld, consumer electronics retailer Best Buy and the HIT Web site". TransWorld, or TWEC, is known for store chains FYE, Coconuts, Wherehouse Music, Strawberries, Spec's, Planet Music, and Saturday Matinee.

One of the other online sources selling this right now is Amazon.com, of course, where it's in stock right now for $12.74 discounted price.

The VB article goes on to point out that this is an "early-bird special", with one-tenth the volume of product made that will be seen when the release goes wide on January 4th. On the same day, HIT Entertainment will also release the 2nd volume of the series, Dance Your Cares Away. It also will contain 3 episodes of the series.

The article, written by Eliza Gallo, goes on to discuss HIT's thinking behind their release strategy:

"It's not the traditional mass market, if you will--more the video specialty," HIT home entertainment senior VP Debbie Ries said.

The two-tiered release strategy came about because of an Internet-based fan group that calls itself Fraggies or Fraggle Rockers. Fan Web sites and a 30,000-signature online petition demanding a DVD release caught the attention of HIT executives in June.

"These people were so anxious to have product that we thought, 'Why don't we go ahead and give them what they want before Christmas and then take a little more time to do the national launch so we can get more pieces in place?'" Ries recalled. "We felt sure that there was enough pent-up demand to support the staggered launch."

The January push will benefit from the additional disc and the greater marketing effort, Ries believes.

"For the general market, it's nice to have two titles, just to have more presence on the shelf," she said. "We'll get circular space and really make it a national launch."

In addition, HIT will employ a grassroots marketing campaign to further cultivate the online fan base. Offerings will include such things as downloads, screensavers, games, Web-exclusive collectibles and chances to vote on which episodes will be released next. These will be located on a combination of the HIT site and fan sites. "We're going to where they are as opposed to driving them to us," Ries said.

"And then our longer-term plan is to look at bringing it back for today's preschoolers," she said. "The preschool parents are going to be interested because it's Fraggle Rock as they remembered it, and then the actual content is for the children. It's interesting: A lot of the Fraggies said, 'I want this for my kids. I loved it when I was growing up.'"

Don't forget that there's even more coming for Fraggle Rock than the VB article discusses. As we've already reported, season sets for Fraggle Rock are also being planned for DVD release by HIT. Look for those to start coming in the Fall of 2005. Stay tuned for more!




Bron: TVShowsonDvd
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