Back in the year 2000 sales of TV series on DVD amounted to just $160 million; by last year that total had morphed to a robust $2.8 billion, approximately 18% of the U.S. market for DVDs.  In other countries such as Britain, the percentage is even higher, amounting to 30% of the DVD market. 

The success of such TV DVD releases as The Chappelle Show and The Family Guy has led to the DVD equivalent of a land rush, as the number of releases has exploded from 257 in 2003 to 445 in 2004 and 325 in the first 24 weeks of 2005.  The increasing number of TV DVD releases had led to a space crunch at retail and resulted in various moves by chain retailers such as Best Buy as they attempt to deal with changing sales trends in the DVD marketplace (see 'Best Buy to Devote More Space to DVDs').

Comic book-based live action, season-length, TV series DVD releases have contributed to the growth in this category, with Smallville, Wonder Woman, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, The Tick, and Mutant X.  The classic Adventures of Superman series from the 1950s is coming its way to DVD later this year (October 18th), and other comic book-based series with considerable sales potential including the 1960s Batman, the Green Hornet and the Flash, are waiting in the wings.