UMD Lives On Thanks To BBC

While North American film and TV producers have declared Sony's UMD movie format for the PlayStation Portable dead and buried, someone apparently didn't cc: that memo to the United Kingdom.  For some reason the BBC has decided to release some of their more popular programs from recent years for UMD in the United States.  Folks hungry for fresh UMD content should clear room on the shelf for Doctor Who, The Office, and Little Britain.  TVShowsOnDVD has the story.

The Doctor Who releases are the Christopher Eccleston/Billie Piper revival series from 2005, with the 13 episodes from that first season broken up into 4 different UMD releases for the PSP.  Then there is Ricky Gervais's original UK version of The Office, the inspiration for NBC's American version starring Steve Carell:  now you can take the hilarity of paper company Wernham Hogg with you wherever you go!  Finally there are also two seasons (or, we should say, series) of Little Britain, a small and surreal parallel universe peopled by over-the-top eccentrics, lunatics and social misfits...it's called by the BBC as "the reigning king of UK comedy".

I don't understand why the BBC is offering these UMD sets.  How large is the demographic crossover between PSP owners and fans of BBC programming in the United States?  The BBC can't say that the industry (and the market) didn't warn them if these releases gather dust on store shelves at a $27.95/each price point.