Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Buffy, Homer and a woolly mammoth are helping swell the coffers at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Ltd.

DVDs of TV favourites such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Simpsons and 24, plus movies including Ice Age and Shallow Hal have been snapped up by fans in the past year, generating revenues of $US250 million.

News Corp’s president and chief operating officer Peter Chernin is keen to continue to exploit the popularity of DVDs and has a string of new releases lined up for this year.

The company is preparing for the DVD release of movie blockbuster X2: X-Men United, which has so far grossed more than $US400 million at box offices worldwide.

There will also be more episodes of The Simpsons and 24 while the Ben Affleck action film Daredevil has recently hit shop shelves and sold more than 3.2 million copies in the US alone.

Beyond home entertainment, there’s a string of new release films from News Corp’s Twentieth Century Fox arm - Master and Commander starring Russell Crowe and Steve Martin’s new comedy Cheaper By The Dozen - which are likely to be later released on DVD.

Mr Chernin said there was plenty of room for growth in the DVD market both internationally and in the United States.

"We are still around the 50 per cent penetration of US households in DVDs - it’s still a very fast growing consumer product," he told journalists as News Corp unveiled a $1.81 billion net profit for 2002/03.

"And I think we’re still somewhere in the high teens low 20 per cent penetration of DVDs internationally.

"So we feel confident there’s still a lot of growth left in the whole category."

As well as success in the DVD market, News Corp has enjoyed a strong run in the all-important American prime-time TV ratings thanks to its hits with the reality competition programs American Idol and Joe Millionaire.

The ratings successes translated into higher advertising revenues for News Corp’s Fox television business.

Joe Millionaire, which was also screened in Australia, is coming back for a second season along with American Idol (a local version of which is currently being screened on the Ten Network).

"Anyone who thinks that American Idol’s success last year was a fluke should be wary," Mr Chernin warned.

"American Idol is a genuine American phenomenon. It’s here to stay and its success should be just as durable and a runaway hit scripted TV series."