Interesting bit of news from the Watching 24 blog, if it's true...

FOX is thinking very seriously about marketing a DVD that contains the first four episodes of the upcoming season of 24. The rumor is the DVD is scheduled to come out on Tuesday, January 16, which the day after the two-day, four-hour season premiere airs on FOX. The price will be $14.95.

Like the Watching 24 folks, I think this is an intriguing marketing experiment, but am not sure why FOX is doing this. Do they think the DVD will stem the tide of downloading via BitTorrent and other services? Why would fans pay half the price of a full season just to see four episodes? And won't fans of the show just wait until the entire season comes out on DVD and buy it then? If FOX succeeds in selling a lot of copies of this disc, I wonder if other networks are going to follow suit?