I'd hope with the next gen formats we might move past this. Still, at least with HD DVD being region free we can import the complete US version easily enough and it'll work out cheaper too.
The problem isn't really the studios (well OK it is) but terrestrial TV rights.
The same thing happened to Lost Seasons 1 & 2. There would be a clause that states that the DVD releases can't happen until after the Terrestrial broadcast (with Lost that was with C4, with Hereos it's BBC2). Because C4 delayed the broadcast it meant that a complete season boxset couldn't come out here until ~ year after the US one. Therefore to get them out on DVD quicker they split the seasons into 2.
With Lost now that $ky have the rights and are screening them only a few weeks after US broadcast I would expect Season 3 to be released in one go.
The same thing is happening with Heroes. Universal want to release the DVD set ASAP (partly to stop importing) but are restricted by BBC 2 not starting screening it until July.
Of course that doesn't mean that the studios don't take the opportunity to fleece the fans and make a bit extra on 2 releases instead of 1.
Why not just buy the region 1 releases? They invariably turn out to be cheaper and in whole rather than half seasons. I believe in the case of Lost, you could buy the whole first season for less than the price of a half season on region 2. If people stop buying them like this, then they'll have to stop releasing them that way.
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Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. Benjamin Franklin
In all honesty, that's what I will be doing. However it would be nice to be able to support the UK market once in a while. It seems though that the powers that be, with a mixture of inflated prices and inferior releases, are making it damn hard for that to happen.
Old habits die hard...
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