According to a Los Angeles Times article (free subscription needed to read it online), the sale of M*A*S*H DVDs has helped account for a 7.8% rise in profits for News Corp. The corporation includes the film company 20th Century Fox, the Fox television network, the Fox News Channel and over 175 newspapers.
Profits are up for the three months ending in June 2004, from $370 million in 2003 to $399 million in 2004. Although television ratings were down overall for 2003-2004, the third season of
DVD sales helped, too:
The Fox film division posted a 7% increase in operating profit to $91 million, driven largely by the DVD release of “Cheaper by the Dozen” and continued demand for DVDs of older films, including “Ice Age” and “Something About Mary.” Popular TV shows continued to sell too, including “The Simpsons,” “24” and the 1970s hit “MASH.”
Although no specific sales figures are known for any of the DVD sets for
Season Six set is currently 123rd in Amazon.com Sales Rank (DVD). By comparison, the Season One
set, which was released in July of 2002, is ranked 7,791st.
Sources: Los Angeles Times; Amazon.com
