The Clone Wars Bonus Content Speculation: Disney Home Video Release and Disney Digital Copy Plus

In a series of posts I will examine the most likely channels for Disney to distribute the remaining Star Wars: The Clone Wars finished episodes.  Up first is Digital Copy Distribution.

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While I don't think we know the legal particulars, i.e. if Warner Bros. retains any home video distribution rights to The Clone Wars series or whether those rights were merely temporarily licensed like the rights licensed to Cartoon Network.

"Cartoon Network’s sister company Warner Bros. distributed the Clone Wars movie in 2008 and has been selling past episodes of Clone Wars on DVD and Blu-ray discs. That is another deal that is likely to move in the future to Disney for home video distribution." ~The Hollywood Reporter

If Amazon UK and Blu-ray.com are to be believed it looks like Warner Bros. will be distributing Season Five's home video release.

If home video distribution rights revert to Lucasfilm and it's parent company Disney with the sale than it is possible Disney could add the finished Season Six episodes, now referred to as "Bonus Content" as a additional digital copy download when purchasing Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Five Blu-ray or DVD.

It is also possible that Disney will be releasing a complete The Clone Wars Box Set that could include these episodes on a bonus disc as well as digital copies.

It was recently announced that on June 11th, Disney will be ditching it's current "digital copy" program and replacing it with a new "digital copy plus" program.  According to The Hollywood Reporter:

"Instead of accessing the digital copy from a disc in the “superset” combo pack, a digital copy of the film can now be accessed directly from the website by consumers who purchase any disc configuration of the film. The website then facilitates the digital delivery of the movie through the consumer’s provider of choice -- in this case, either iTunes, Amazon Instant video or Vudu -- and eliminates the need for a digital copy to be included in the disc package." 

Given Disney's penchant for squeezing every last penny out of home video sales, I would think it isn't terribly likely that the bonus content would be added as a free download to the purchase of a Disney distributed The Clone Wars box set either Season Five or The Complete Series.  The distribution of the bonus content this way would be a cool use of the revamped digital copy system that Disney is deploying however.

Another viable option would be to edit together the bonus arcs into short 66 or  88 minute films and release them directly to video.  This could be as single releases (probably only on DVD) or as a collection (probably on both DVD and Blu-ray).  If they release the bonus content as feature length cuts I think fans would really dig it and they could air them as prime time specials on the Disney Channel or XD before their home video release.  Again if they do a home video release for them they could also do the digital copy plus copy as well.


SOURCES: IGN and THR