I've always thought of it as Shameless being a UK company, first and formost. New York Ripper might be available in other parts of the world in various editions but this is the UK issue. Not everyone wants to be dealing with importing various different editions of the film. And given that the BBFC seems more interested in making sure films adhere to legal boundaries rather than their own moral ones these days, importing certain cuts of certain films is a risky business. This is a company for us run by people in the UK who are getting these films out into our chain stores.
The appeal of Shameless has never been about finding the definitive version of any film and getting all sorts of bonus features for me. It's been about seeing some interesting looking films that I haven't seen before in a convenient and cheap way. Where films are uncut it's great, but I'll not be paying ?15 to order an illegal copy of a film I've never seen before and then have to wait 3 weeks for it to turn up (assuming I've been lucky and my postman hasn't seen his way to robbing it or kicking it down the road, Ace Ventura style).
With regard to Shameless' future; adding features and such to the DVD's might be a useful way to break the international market. But for UK high streets I think a wealth of titles is the way to go.
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