Missing an Opportunity

Last week I noticed that our public library had a few "Bill Nye the Science Guy" DVDs on the shelves. On a whim, I checked out a couple for the kids, even though the box says that they're intended for 4th grade and up. Scooter is only in Kindergarden, and the twins are not quite three.

You've probably guessed where this is heading: the kids took to Bill Nye like nothing I've ever seen. I returned the first set of DVDs, and checked out nine more; and the twins have been singing "Bill Nye the Science Guy! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!" all weekend.

What a great video to add to our collection! The kids like it more than Spongebob, and they're learning more, too.

So I did a little searching. Odd, Amazon doesn't carry Bill Nye DVDs. Nor does Barnes and Noble.

In fact, it seems the only place to buy them is direct from Disney, in an enhanced "classroom edition." For $50 each. That's one half-hour episode per disc.

Or if you want to same some money, you can buy the entire 80-episode set. For $2,679.

I'm sure Disney set these prices because they didn't expect to sell Bill Nye DVDs to anyone other than schools and libraries. At these prices, that's guaranteed to be true.

But I think they're missing a huge opportunity. The episodes could be packaged six to a disc and priced at a point where it would appeal to families. I would gladly pay $80 for a five-disc set with 30 episodes. Disney would be getting one twentieth the revenue per episode, but they would probably sell a hundred times as many episodes.

So, how about it?