[Stooky Bill]

It's not particularly surprising though, their releases were quite niche appeal, not mainstream. It costs a lot of time and money to license and remaster these things and they presumably only sold a few thousand copies.

Unfortunaky times are hard, it's a shame

[simpfeld]

I have to say their Professionals Blu-Ray is superb work.
Original camera negatives used. They corrected so many things, hair on the gate, brightness issues, even the contrast between an inside shot and a door going outside.

It looks like a highly detailed HD recreation of the 1970s, it's that good.

I hope Network's masters of the Professionals and the Sweeney one don't get lost, ITV should buy them to replace their utterly dreadful masters.

[James2001]

Wouldn't ITV have some sort of ownership in the Professionals remasters anyway, seeing as they own the show itself?

---

It's not particularly surprising though, their releases were quite niche appeal, not mainstream. It costs a lot of time and money to license and remaster these things and they presumably only sold a few thousand copies.

Unfortunaky times are hard, it's a shame

They did have some releases that were more mainstream, I guess they used them to help fund the more niche ones.

They recently released a 96 disc Crossroads boxset, which had every surviving episode up until Noele Gordon's departure, that really is the sort of thing nobody else would do. In the UK at least, Australia seems to be a haven of releases of TV shows of all genres and levels of obscurity, many of which don't seem to be released elsewhere, even in the countries they were made in, including releases of long running shows with loads of episodes, like Prisoner and The Bill which have been released in full (Network only got as far as 1990 with the latter).

[WillPS]

AIUI ITV get access to the masters for distribution (other than UK home media) as part of the deal. Whether or not they had to pay Network any residuals from that I couldn't tell you, but I doubt it.

Certainly Network's restoration of Captain Scarlet made it to Britbox at one point.

[James2001]

I've worked from a presumption that the reason ITV4 keep using the old beat up Professionals copies (cropped to 16:9 on many episodes too) may have been a way to encourage sales of the DVDs and Blu-Rays, which people will be less likely to do if they can just watch the high quality versions for free, with Network's demise that will likely no longer be a consideration and maybe we'll finally get them on ITV4.

The remasters were on Amazon Prime at one point, but like so much content on there, it ended up being something that they charge extra for.

[WillPS]

I've worked from a presumption that the reason ITV4 keep using the old beat up Professionals copies (cropped to 16:9 on many episodes too) may have been a way to encourage sales of the DVDs and Blu-Rays, which people will be less likely to do if they can just watch the high quality versions for free, with Network's demise that will likely no longer be a consideration and maybe we'll finally get them on ITV4.

The remasters were on Amazon Prime at one point, but like so much content on there, it ended up being something that they charge extra for.

Never discount apathy as a possibility too. There's not been a good reason why so much stuff 16:9 stuff goes out in 14:9 for 15+ years now, and yet plenty does simply because that's what they have 'loaded in' (ISTR Discovery Travel & Living being the last notable channel to broadcast in 4:3, and that closed in 2013)

No rights issues, just no desire to sort it.

[Jon]

The remasters were on Amazon Prime at one point, but like so much content on there, it ended up being something that they charge extra for.

Side point but don’t think it’s something that Amazon themselves charges extra for, more that they don’t have a deal to include it in prime with the rights holder and it’s the rights holder selling it via Amazon. I assume content can appear for free via Prime by either Amazon buying the content to show or the rights holder giving it to Amazon for free.

[Humphrey Hacker]

They were also responsible for brining out some of Jasper Carrott's early LWT programming onto DVD as well a a collection of ABC programming. Very sad news indeed.

[London Lite]

You can still buy the remastered box sets of The Professionals to stream per series or episode on Amazon.

[Humphrey Hacker]

You can still buy the remastered box sets of The Professionals to stream per series or episode on Amazon.

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