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Post by fitzoliverj on Apr 7, 2019 11:23:21 GMT
Bulk shipping is cheaper than the equivalent to lots of individual shipping*, I wonder whether it would be achievable for BF (or somebody else) to set up official resellers or distributors in Australia and the US and send a huge pile of CDs overseas in one go.
* Of course, that's even just assuming a single journey. A couple of years ago I wanted to buy a small-press book from the US but the cost of shipping to the UK was prohibitively expensive for one or two items. Fortunately I was able to get it from a UK seller instead. It turned out the book was printed in the UK. About an hour's drive from where I live. The cost of the item already included one Atlantic crossing even before the proposed charge just to send it back again.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Apr 7, 2019 18:10:08 GMT
Speaking as someone who suggested Jason come on the podcast to explain the change in policy, I’m glad and appreciative that he did it. The question I have post-explanation is in reference to his comment about how they are going to spend the next two months digging into the numbers and moving forward with the information they find.......does that mean they didn’t do any of that to begin with and why not? I also thought it was interesting that BF’s solution to not raising prices was to create more ranges. Did I hear that correctly? Anyway, it was nice to have it explained and hopefully forward BF will get better at the pr aspect of it.
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Post by tuigirl on Apr 7, 2019 18:35:56 GMT
Speaking as someone who suggested Jason come on the podcast to explain the change in policy, I’m glad and appreciative that he did it. The question I have post-explanation is in reference to his comment about how they are going to spend the next two months digging into the numbers and moving forward with the information they find.......d oes that mean they didn’t do any of that to begin with and why not? I also thought it was interesting that BF’s solution to not raising prices was to create more ranges. Did I hear that correctly? Anyway, it was nice to have it explained and hopefully forward BF will get better at the pr aspect of it. Yep, I also found that to be a little bit worrisome. It really must have been a panic reaction partly due to Brexit and they certainly did not expect the backlash they got.
And yeah, the "more ranges= more money" also got me scratching my head. Would that not involve more hiring actors, writers and so on and what about the risk of some new ranges not working out? As I said earlier, I have the economic sense of a drunk hedgehog, but I somehow could not believe my ears and re-wound a bit. Yes, we did hear correctly.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Apr 7, 2019 19:13:05 GMT
And I guess between now and June, I need to find a way to purchase as much stuff as far out as BF will let me. I'll certainly be renewing my sub through 2020.
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Post by cr1980 on Apr 7, 2019 19:23:02 GMT
Speaking as someone who suggested Jason come on the podcast to explain the change in policy, I’m glad and appreciative that he did it. The question I have post-explanation is in reference to his comment about how they are going to spend the next two months digging into the numbers and moving forward with the information they find.......does that mean they didn’t do any of that to begin with and why not? I also thought it was interesting that BF’s solution to not raising prices was to create more ranges. Did I hear that correctly? Anyway, it was nice to have it explained and hopefully forward BF will get better at the pr aspect of it. I think looking at the numbers is more a matter of checking out pricing models other than just direct currency conversion or 1:1. Maybe they should use the Big Mac Index to calibrate prices to different countries ? (The podcast has me nervous that Jason thinks everyone in Australia lives on the shores of Sydney Harbour). As far as expanding the number of ranges goes, Jason mentioned that it spreads fixed costs (warehouse, office, admin staff, Jason's gold-plated executive jet) over more products, so there are efficiencies in doing more stuff. Assuming that they actually sell more stuff rather than have the same core fans spread their spending more thinly. I wouldn't necessarily be pessimistic about this. Big Finish does great stuff, and the rise of podcasts and Audible and such would, I hope, be growing the market for audio entertainment.
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Post by Digi on Apr 7, 2019 19:46:58 GMT
However this ends up shaking out in two months' time (or three, or four, or however long), I do very much appreciate that Jason took the time to be on the podcast and talk about it. The 'more ranges means more income' thing made me scratch my head a bit (as I've already mentioned over in the podcast thread), but it's a bit heartening to hear that they're going to drill down a bit more into economic relativity. I can deal with a reasonable price increase, it's the cost of doing business after all. But for those of us in regions where prices are/were going to double, the direct-conversion plan was a bit of a kick in the teeth.
Of course, it could still happen that way anyway, so I'm going to see how many pre-orders I can afford before June 1.
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Post by Ela on Apr 7, 2019 20:01:13 GMT
Speaking as someone who suggested Jason come on the podcast to explain the change in policy, I’m glad and appreciative that he did it. The question I have post-explanation is in reference to his comment about how they are going to spend the next two months digging into the numbers and moving forward with the information they find.......does that mean they didn’t do any of that to begin with and why not? I also thought it was interesting that BF’s solution to not raising prices was to create more ranges. Did I hear that correctly? Anyway, it was nice to have it explained and hopefully forward BF will get better at the pr aspect of it. Yeah, I wondered about that making up the shortfall by creating new ranges. Seems counter-intuitive to me.
And I guess between now and June, I need to find a way to purchase as much stuff as far out as BF will let me. I'll certainly be renewing my sub through 2020. Same, as far as figuring out how to purchase more stuff before the prices go up. Unless they add more releases in the main range, there aren't enough for me to buy another sub.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Apr 7, 2019 20:03:30 GMT
Speaking as someone who suggested Jason come on the podcast to explain the change in policy, I’m glad and appreciative that he did it. The question I have post-explanation is in reference to his comment about how they are going to spend the next two months digging into the numbers and moving forward with the information they find.......does that mean they didn’t do any of that to begin with and why not? I also thought it was interesting that BF’s solution to not raising prices was to create more ranges. Did I hear that correctly? Anyway, it was nice to have it explained and hopefully forward BF will get better at the pr aspect of it. Yeah, I wondered about that making up the shortfall by creating new ranges. Seems counter-intuitive to me.
And I guess between now and June, I need to find a way to purchase as much stuff as far out as BF will let me. I'll certainly be renewing my sub through 2020. Same, as far as figuring out how to purchase more stuff before the prices go up. Unless they add more releases in the main range, there aren't enough for me to buy another sub. I can renew another sub for a year. I was hoping to do a 18 month sub but I miss by 1 release.
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Post by fingersmash on Apr 7, 2019 22:27:37 GMT
Yeah, I wondered about that making up the shortfall by creating new ranges. Seems counter-intuitive to me.
Same, as far as figuring out how to purchase more stuff before the prices go up. Unless they add more releases in the main range, there aren't enough for me to buy another sub. I can renew another sub for a year. I was hoping to do a 18 month sub but I miss by 1 release. Same here. For a minute, I considered just double dipping on the one extra but decided against it
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Apr 8, 2019 9:45:19 GMT
Nice to hear from Jason. Not so nice to hear that CD prices are also going to up some time in the next couple of years Haven't listened yet. Is that CD prices for overseas or for UK as well?
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Post by Whovitt on Apr 8, 2019 10:06:35 GMT
Nice to hear from Jason. Not so nice to hear that CD prices are also going to up some time in the next couple of years Haven't listened yet. Is that CD prices for overseas or for UK as well? The impression I got was that it would be everyone's CDs, as CDs are already currency converted. To raise only overseas CD prices would simply kill the overseas physical market.
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Apr 8, 2019 10:26:59 GMT
I also thought it was interesting that BF’s solution to not raising prices was to create more ranges. Did I hear that correctly? As far as expanding the number of ranges goes, Jason mentioned that it spreads fixed costs (warehouse, office, admin staff, Jason's gold-plated executive jet) over more products, so there are efficiencies in doing more stuff. Assuming that they actually sell more stuff rather than have the same core fans spread their spending more thinly. I wouldn't necessarily be pessimistic about this. Big Finish does great stuff, and the rise of podcasts and Audible and such would, I hope, be growing the market for audio entertainment. Well its obviously true that more ranges/release means fixed costs can be spread more widely thus reducing the overall costs, but it seems to rest on 3 questionable assumptions:
1. It assumes there is sufficient market demand out there to absorb the new ranges. If, as some on this forum have suggested (myself included), more ranges/releases means regular customers switch their expenditure from older ranges/releases to new ones, and BF are simply cannibalising their own sales, then the law of diminishing marginal returns applies to the amount of revenue raised from new ranges
2. It also assumes new ranges will be lucrative. Depending on what they are, this may or may not be the case. I must admit I am a little confused by BF's approach. On the one hand we have ranges like Omega Factor, Counter Measures, Survivors, Novel Adaptations being ended or downscaled bur to poor sales. On a podcast a few months ago Nick said in response to an email that he would love to do Doomwatch but the market wasn't there (or something like that). So there is a definite impression given that outside of the core, popular franchises with established fanbases like Doctor Who, B7, Dark Shadows there isn't really a huge untapped reservoir of demand out there. Even the Prisoner, which does have an established fanbase doesn't appear to have sold as well as they expected - the series 1 deluxe box set limited edition was cut back from 3,000 to 1,500 and series 3 will be the last. On the other hand there is the idea that new ranges are the solution to all problems. Look at Adam Adamant for instance, I will buy it and enjoy it and I'm sure plenty of existing BF customers will do as as well, but I can't see an old BBC series that lasted for a couple of years in the 1960s it flying off the shelves to "new" customers. If Jason has in mind other franchises we don't yet know about, then it may well be the case that they will sell well and reduce fixed costs across all ranges and thereby selling prices as well. Buffy was recently teased (see the Obscure News thread), although the consensus on this forum seems to be that was a red herring but even if BF do have the license for Buffy or a franchise like Buffy with a large fanbase, given how BF got their fingers burnt with Stargate I would be wary of assuming that even a fairly recent / popular franchise will be a runaway success.
3. It also assumes BF can maintain their quality as their volume increases. David Richardson et al have only so many hours in their day and can only do so much. If they get stretched too thinly, something has to give! New people coming in carries risks in terms of quality, plus if they end up having to hire a second or third David Richardson type person to oversee things, then the "spreading fixed costs" argument falls down because they are increasing fixed costs.
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Post by stcoop on Apr 8, 2019 10:41:07 GMT
'Dark Shadows' aside, I'd assume that the bulk of the audience for the other non-Who ranges are a subset of the people buying the bulk of their DW output. So unless they're going for some radically different licenses, you're just asking the same people to hand over more money.
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Apr 8, 2019 10:50:16 GMT
'Dark Shadows' aside, I'd assume that the bulk of the audience for the other non-Who ranges are a subset of the people buying the bulk of their DW output. So unless they're going for some radically different licenses, you're just asking the same people to hand over more money. I think that's generally true. Avengers, Prisoner, Sherlock Homes and B7 are the ones that come to my mind as having their own fandom, overlapping but distinct from Doctor Who.
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lidar2
Castellan
You know, now that you mention it, I actually do rather like Attack of the Cybermen ...
Likes: 5,819
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Post by lidar2 on Apr 12, 2019 10:27:33 GMT
I was thinking about this some more.
For my sins I am an accountant and have worked as FC/FD in various companies. If Jason is worried about profitability, the first thing I would say to him is - cut the lunches for the actors, they say in the Extras that no one else does lunches like BF, so they're obviously used to working without them - send someone out to Tesco to buy a few sandwiches instead.
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Post by number13 on Apr 12, 2019 12:31:13 GMT
I was thinking about this some more. For my sins I am an accountant and have worked as FC/FD in various companies. If Jason is worried about profitability, the first thing I would say to him is - cut the lunches for the actors, they say in the Extras that no one else does lunches like BF, so they're obviously used to working without them - send someone out to Tesco to buy a few sandwiches instead. But what would happen to BF if all their actors became Ravenous...?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2019 12:45:12 GMT
I was thinking about this some more. For my sins I am an accountant and have worked as FC/FD in various companies. If Jason is worried about profitability, the first thing I would say to him is - cut the lunches for the actors, they say in the Extras that no one else does lunches like BF, so they're obviously used to working without them - send someone out to Tesco to buy a few sandwiches instead. No! Not the lunches!
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Post by fingersmash on Apr 12, 2019 13:13:57 GMT
I was thinking about this some more. For my sins I am an accountant and have worked as FC/FD in various companies. If Jason is worried about profitability, the first thing I would say to him is - cut the lunches for the actors, they say in the Extras that no one else does lunches like BF, so they're obviously used to working without them - send someone out to Tesco to buy a few sandwiches instead. No! Not the lunches! On that, who does do the lunches? I remember them saying it's often one of their regular writers or directors.
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Post by Digi on Apr 12, 2019 13:15:26 GMT
I was always under the impression that the lunches were a potluck — the director, engineers, etc. who were working that day cooked up a storm beforehand and brought it all in on recording days.
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Post by tuigirl on Apr 12, 2019 18:34:07 GMT
I had already posted this in another thread, but since this might affect some of the international customers, I share it here, too.
Just letting you guys know since I had quite a bit of email traffic today with Big Finish.
They still have some issues with PayPal.
I had bought the Flashsale items and was charged not the 1:1 conversion, but the Euro equivalent in pounds. Maybe they had the new conversion implemented too early? This has been going on for a couple of days now and they are trying to fix it ASAP. I did not even notice that there was a problem until I got the refund email from Big Finish- so they are really onto it and pretty fast, too.
Just in case some of you got charged too much and worry if you get your money back- it seems to be under control at least.
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