TIMELESS APPEAL, LOW PRICES STUDIOS DROPPING THE COST OF BUYING SEASONS OF FAVORITE TV SHOWS ON DVD.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

It's a lot cheaper to buy old friends this week.

Make that cheaper to buy old ``Friends'' as Warner Home Video has slashed the price of the DVD boxed sets of the sitcom's first nine seasons this week in conjunction with Tuesday's release of the 10th and final season on home video.

Most major retailers, including Target, Best Buy and Amazon.com, are selling the boxed sets for under $20. This discount pricing strategy of earlier seasons has become increasingly commonplace in recent months for TV-on-DVD collections that have traditionally had a far higher price tag than movie titles because they contain many more hours of content.

``The key thing is to bring people into the franchise,'' said Jeff Brown, Warner Home Video senior vice president and general manager. ``Only 30 percent of those fans of 'Friends' have bought it on DVD.''

Last month, Warners had temporarily heavily discounted the first seasons of ``The West Wing'' and ``Smallville'' for under $15 as well as several older shows including ``Dallas,'' ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' and ``The Dukes of Hazzard.''

``We'll continue to look at promotional vehicles and monitor them,'' Brown said.

On Amazon.com this week, most of the past seasons of Universal Studios Home Entertainment's ``Law & Order'' franchise are available for 50 percent off the nearly $60 list price. Amazon is also selling the first two seasons of ``The West Wing,'' ``ER'' and ``NYPD Blue'' and the first seasons of ``Arrested Development'' and ``The Bernie Mac Show'' for just under $20.

Older sitcoms are also a steal on Amazon.com with the first eight seasons of ``M*A*S*H'' and the first three seasons of ``In Living Color'' priced at $19.97 each, while the first two seasons of ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' and ``The Bob Newhart Show'' are on sale for between $15 and $17 each.

``I think what the studios are trying to do by lowering the prices of their earlier seasons is to extend their shelf life and to give people a chance to catch up at a more reasonable cost,'' said Kurt Indvik, editor of the industry trade magazine Home Media Retailing.

HBO pay cable shows such as ``The Sopranos,'' ``Six Feet Under'' and ``Oz'' have historically been much more expensive than broadcast network shows, with a list price usually hovering around the $100 mark. But the first four seasons of HBO's ``Oz'' can be purchased on Amazon.com this week for $42.97.

``We did it to get interest in subsequent seasons,'' said Cynthia Rhea, HBO Video's senior vice president and general manager, at the DVD TV conference in Marina del Rey last week. ``On 'Oz,' the numbers have been very encouraging. About half of the buyers of HBO shows are not HBO subscribers.''

The first season of Showtime's ``Queer as Folk,'' which ended a five-season run earlier this year, is being sold at most retail outlets now for $39.99 or less a season, less than half its original price. But subsequent seasons still have a list price of more than $100.

Savvy DVD collectors have become quite adept at finding the best price for a title by searching online and scouring Sunday advertising supplements.

Overall, sales of TV-DVD titles in 2005 are expected to surpass the $3 billion mark for the first time, with the category cornering 20 percent of the entire DVD market. This once-niche home-video category is experiencing explosive growth as sales of other types of DVD titles, mainly feature films, have begun to flatten out after years of unprecedented sales.

The popularity of the TV titles has resulted in a proliferation of the genre with current shows and titles from the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s all competing for customers.

This might not be a problem for an online retailer such as Amazon.com, but it can make for a space crunch at brick-and-mortar stores, which have limited room on their shelves and might only want to stock what they think will sell best. So far, displays of the discounted early seasons have been enjoying prominent placement in many stores.

``With shelf space the way it is, the more seasons of any particular show in the pipeline, a retailer has to start making choices,'' Indvik said. ``Given season 5 versus season 1, if they are both priced the same, retailers will choose the more current season.''

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) The cast of ``Friends'' is closer to home than ever, thanks to a drop in the DVD price of the sitcom's first nine seasons.