RIP Network

[fatboyslim142 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fatboyslim142]

British DVD/BD company Network that specialised in releasing a lot of TV (mostly ITV) on DVD/BD as well as loads of British films etc, that would not get released at all by any other label in some cases if it wasn't for them, has now sadly gone out of business. Their founder Tim Beddows passed away 6 months (November 2022) ago.

Network released loads of TV from Monty Python's Flying Circus, Ripping Yarns & The Goodies to The Persuaders, Man in a Suitcase & The Human Jungle. There is now a huge hole in the restoration of old TV etc, especially ITV stuff & it coming out on DVD/BD.

Among the excellent work they did was finding series that were thought lost or mostly lost such as this example:

ATV’s brilliant Victorian detective series Sergeant Cork was considered mostly lost when Network planned their DVD release - in the course of putting it together they discovered that all 6 series actually existed in full

Some of my most cherished releases on DVD/BD were released by Network & there's still loads of their releases I still want/need that I never got round to buying. Hope someone comes along & picks up the baton & revives Network from the dead like what happened with Twilight Time.



The Gerry Anderson Twitter account posted the following (Network released loads of Anderson series on DVD/BD):

Thank you for everything,@networktweets. Anderfans all over the world have a lot to be grateful for. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the closure of Network Distributing.

RIP Network.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Sad to hear, they put so much stuff out that others wouldn't touch.

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

This is incredibly sad news, and a bit of a shock to be honest.

I wasn't aware that Tim Beddows had passed away - again, really sad to hear - but even aside from that, I guess it's easy to see why Network's business model (putting out hazily remembered episodic TV and largely forgotten British movies, then heavily discounting them in sales) might not have exactly maximised profit margins in the streaming era.

Still, I'd always assumed they must be doing ok, just because they seemed such an established / well-grounded part of the media landscape.

Even sadder is that, in a lot of ways, the more recent releases I've picked up from them (eg, 'Dark Eyes of London', 'Devil Ship Pirates', 'The Owl Service') seemed to be going from strength to strength, with great restorations, great new extras and... affordable price points? Again, sadly I guess it's that last point that's proved the kicker.

Easy to imagine that other labels (Indicator in particular) might step in to pick up their more high profile titles, but aside from that, you're both right - hard to imagine that much of the older / more obscure stuff they put out (particularly the TV) will ever see the light of day again.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

On a purely mercenary level, it's difficult to know whether to grab any titles now before they disappear and scalpers get them, or to wait and see if the stock is going to be liquidated and sold off cheap.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Sad. They released stuff noone else cared about, even if their releases sometimes had poor quality it was nice that someone at least put the stuff out there.

[fatboyslim142 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fatboyslim142]

On a purely mercenary level, it's difficult to know whether to grab any titles now before they disappear and scalpers get them, or to wait and see if the stock is going to be liquidated and sold off cheap.

If I was you I'd get what you want now & anything you can't get then try get those in any stock sell off thing.