What you're running into with "The Voice" is what classic-sitcom fans have been running into for years, such as with "WKRP in Cincinnati" and "The Wonder Years": music rights.

Those sitcoms all made heavy use of pop music, and while the network lawyers did secure the rights to include that music in the episodes that aired on TV, they didn't get them for future video releases. It proved to be an enormous headache for those shows, which just used the music for background and mood, so imagine how much trouble it is for shows that are just about the music.

"The Voice" is, of course, based on musical performances, and so it has even more songs to clear than the most music-heavy sitcom. NBC hasn't released any DVDs from the show yet, but there is some hope.

Fox's "American Idol," "The Voice's" predecessor in the singing-competition genre, got around this by releasing best-of DVD packages. Fox could then pick and choose which songs to get the rights to, and often only parts of the song were included, which would make that even easier.

However, even a full-season release of "The Voice" is possible, if the network wants it bad enough.

A DVD release of the aforementioned "WKRP," for example, was once considered impossible because of the rights barrier. However, after years of negotiations, and almost $1 million in licensing fees, home video company Shout! Factory was finally able to release the full series on DVD earlier this year. They decided it would be worthwhile. However, the home video market is shrinking.

"Fortunately, we're still doing well selling DVDs, but there's no doubt it's a decreasing market," Shout!'s Garson Foos said in an interview with Vox.com, "and it may get to a point where the market potential becomes too small to make it worth it."

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