Looking for Digital Future
'Stargate SG-1' Fans Seek Out New Life Via Broadband
By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 10/8/2006 8:00:00 PM
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Fans of cancelled Sci Fi Channel series Stargate SG-1 hope Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store or maybe Amazon.com Inc.'s Unbox will give the show an extended life.
They're building support for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.'s to continue the show and sell episodes via those or other pay-per-download outlets. After that, the space-adventure show could appear on international television, be sold on DVD and later air on U.S. broadcast stations now showing older episodes in syndication.
Fans paid $6,940 for a full-page ad in the Sept. 29 Variety urging calls and letters to Sci Fi executives. But one campaign organizer says she doesn't seriously expect that network to reverse course and air new one-hour episodes after the current season ends next year.
“But we do expect [new episodes] to 'air' on iTunes, Amazon Unbox, Google Video, Virgin Digital and all the other readily accessible online download services, followed by the usual-suspect broadcasters overseas,” Alison Butler, co-owner of the SaveStargateSG1.com Web site, said in an e-mail exchange from England.
“We expect new Stargate SG-1 episodes to be made available on DVD with a kid-at-Christmas array of extra features — from cast commentaries to 'director's cut' extended episodes — to make this additional purchase a worthwhile one,” she said in her e-mail. “We also expect that new episodes would in time air on U.S. television in syndication.”
Sci Fi's response, via spokeswoman Lana Kim: “The trade ad is a testament to the passionate loyalty that Stargate engenders. Sci Fi is proud to extend the franchise with a brand new season of [spinoff] Stargate Atlantis and we continue to work with MGM to seek out new opportunities in the Stargate universe.”
The same week in August Sci Fi told producers the series wouldn't be renewed, new episodes of the show went on sale on iTunes for $1.99 each or $37.99 for the season. Season 10 of SG-1 is the No. 47 season download on iTunes, but it was more popular when the shows were current. (New episodes are scheduled to air next spring.) SG-1's “The Quest, Part 1” episode was the 64th most popular download late last week.
NBC Universal-owned Sci Fi has indicated it might buy new Stargate SG-1 fare, possibly movies or miniseries, but won't order a full 20-plus episodes of a show that costs more than $2 million an installment to make.
No other U.S. TV outlet can air first-run Stargate SG-1 episodes next year, per Sci Fi's contract with MGM, the network has said.
Could MGM make a download model work, without undercutting DVD sales?
“I don't mean to dodge the question, but we are figuring that out now,” MGM executive vice president of corporate communications Jeff Pryor said via e-mail last Friday. MGM has called Stargate SG-1 its second-biggest franchise, after the James Bond theatrical films.
Meanwhile, Butler's SaveStargate effort had raised $12,541.20 in PayPal donations by last week, with plans for a second full-page ad in Variety soon. It will promote “our hopes for a 'digital future' for the show,” Butler said.
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