Sports video warming up for big season

Drug Store News, Nov 9, 1998

Judging by major studio commitments, sports video looks like a category warming up in the bullpen. Mitch Koch, general manager, North America, for Buena Vista Home Video, told Drug Store News, "Drug chains have traditionally carried theatrical releases, but a strong area of growth they should not overlook is sports titles. For instance, NASCAR is the fastest growing spectator sport in America for males and females."

Women's sports is another growth area. "The WNBA not only started off with a bang, but has maintained its attendance and fan support in the second year," said Koch. "Our video, 'We Got Next,' featuring a capsulated look at the WNBA's inaugural year, struck a chord with the sport's burgeoning legion of fans."

Joe DiLeonardo, director of marketing, special interest, for Warner Home Video, said, "Our most exciting new venture in the sports marketing category is the initial entry to sell-through of World Championship Wrestling the New World Order."

In September, Warner released four titles in a new series, which includes two types of programming. "One [type of programming] is wrestlerspecific character profiles," DiLeonardo explained. The first two in the series are the wrestler Sting in "Sting Unmasked" and "Randy Macho Man Savage: The Man Behind the Mask" (both $14.95).

The other two titles are all-star collections of the annual pay-per-view events WCW organizes. "The Best of Halloween Havoc" has highlights of the past four to five years of this annual event; "Best of the Bash at the Beach" includes highlights of this annual summer event held in San Diego (both are $14.95). "We're seeing an increase in popularity and significant growth in attendance for [wrestling] matches, cable broadcast and pay-per-view, which would indicate that the fans are large in number and are loyal," said DiLeonardo.

On a more traditional note, Polygram is offering a lineup of new NFL video releases this fall, including "The NFL's 50 Greatest Quarterbacks" ($14.95) and "NFL's Greatest Games: '58 Championship" ($19.95). Coming up, at a date yet to be announced, is the video of Super Bowl XXXIII for fans who just can't get enough of a good thing.