With DVR’s, Tivo, etc. Many people no longer watch comercials at all. Advertisers are aware of this and now pay alot less for comercial advertising then they used too. With this change most big budget TV shows, not just Atlantis are running a deficit for the networks, causing networks to shed even succesful shows unless they continue to bring in more customers than each previous year as with every year now the networks are making less and less money per customer on advertising.

I believe network television as a whole is dying and already you can see this as most shows are now being providing ina pay per view format as an alternative to the networks. As this becomes more popular you will see a dynamic change in how TV is displayed in general.

Once the networks finally die there will no longer be a need for a show to fit a specific time interval, rather the time interval for each episode can be flexible to fit the story line. Frankly I just can’t wait for netwrks to die and video on demand to take the place of them.

Anyways, to get back to my point, DVD releases are about as close as you can come right now to this format, so it is a natural progression for shows that are good, but not good enough to sustain these failing networks, to make the move to DVD.

I for one am glad that the Stargate franchise continues to live on, even as networks struggle not to collapse under their own weight. I think it is a smart move on the part of the producers and after all someone has to start the new trend, why not Stargate!

Well I guess I will have time to do other stuff now. Since there will be nothing on TV anymore. Except reality tv. Which is something I will not or can not handle to watch anymore.

Dave

Anyway, That’s what I think.
Feel free to comment.

I miss the boat on things far more than I care to admit. While your theory (i.e., that MGM pulled the rug out from under SciFi in order to focus on more profitable DVD sales) makes sense to me, the articles and press releases I've reviewed don't say that MGM cancelled the show rather than SciFi. Do you have inside knowledge on this? Or, if not, can you point us to whatever you reviewed that led you to your conclusion?

I don't know what the percentages are on the movies and the show. I do know that the first SG1 movie made $8.9 MM (budget of $7 MM) and the second SG1 movie has so far made $6.4 MM (budget of $7 MM). (http://www.the-numbers.com). Assuming that by year's end, the two movies make a combined $20 MM in revenue, how much profit is that for MGM? And, how likely will new movies be to sell well once the show is off the air?

So the costs aren't going to be significantly different. The BIG difference is the return on investment MGM will get. No more splitting anything with a broadcaster like Scifi, they have the control and therefore the profit. The DVD movies are an example of this. MGM gets the lions share from their sale in its pocket PLUS the broadcast sale to Scifi. It's all about the bottom line.

You have to ask yourself this. If MGM wasn't launching its new cable channel, would SGA be ending now?

As shoddy as the writings been of late, I can see SGA getting at least 1 more season, possibly with Scifi giving the producers the heads up so they can build to closure. It's in Scifi's best interests to have new Stargate right now for example, to support 'Sanctary' (whose fanbase is SG orientated thanks to it being an SG alumni project i.e Amanda Tapping and Martin Woods) and not piss off the fanbase. Not to mention time to develope and try out new shows to fill the gap.

No wonder then, that SGA was cancelled. MGM are unlikely to split the franchise by having two shows on two different cable channels, when it's new channel will no doubt be a rival to Scifi. They are also highly unlike to produce new Atlantis episodes for that channel, as its an 'old' show and Scifi should retain the broadcast rights to SGA's first 5 seasons for some time to come.

Seems like Scifi has had 'Atlantis' pulled out from under them. It makes sense business wise for MGM to ditch SGA and go with 'Universe', broadcast on their own premium cable channel. However its a bitch of a bitter pill to swallow for the fans. Not to mention utter arrogance by The Powers that Be expecting the fans to happily migrate over and hoping SGA is quickly forgotten when the new show airs (frankly the premise for 'Universe' was pathetically awful, or just very badly synopsised and pitched). Personally I lost interest by the end of season 3 when the cast changes began and switched to just watching the show on the DVD boxsets.

'Stargate' has been in serious need of a reboot, but more from the writing department then the show premise. They took one of the single greatest, unsolved myths/mysteries in human history, 'Atlantis' and instead of capitalising on it, lazily chose to rehash old film, tv and worse yet, SG1 scripts. And these are the same people writing Universe, not a good sign. I'll be sad to see it go, but maybe SGA is better off sunk.

Great points. Thanks.

The SG1 DVDs did better than projected, and the revenues went right into MGM's pockets–no SciFI to split the profits with. With the show's creators already focussed on SGU, where's the percentage in continuing to produce 20 hours of SGA for tv when they can make more money with movies?

This has been in the wind for months. My guess? SciFi was probably the only partner that *didn't* want to see the series end this year.