Since the rise of Netflix and streaming the future of home entertainment was going to be through the internet. For a time, from 2013 to 2018, it seemed possible due to dominates of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. But I personally believe the predicted death of physical media has been grossly exaggerated.
The claims that physical media was dead were made during the rise of Netflix. The combination of Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu had a seemingly endless library of content. This golden age ended when other companies entered the streaming market, resulting in these companies pulling their content from Netflix and other services, and investing in making exclusive content. This has led to a fractious marketplace and people are unlikely to subscribe to every streaming service. This leaves audiences with two other choices if they want to see specific content, get the home release, or pirate a film or TV show. Studios and distributors would prefer people to use the former than the latter. Netflix and Amazon have released some of their shows on DVD and Blu-ray and they wouldn’t do it if they weren’t making money from the sales.
The streaming marketplace now is similar to premium cable – some people can afford it, others can’t. There were people who would have wanted to watch shows like The Sopranos but if someone didn’t have HBO then home media would have been their option. There can be situations where people might want certain shows or films without paying a monthly or yearly subscription. There are plenty of Star Wars fans who would be interested in The Mandalorian but don’t want a Disney+ subscription. It’s the same case for people who might be interested in a certain show like foreign-language shows or anime series that are only available on niche services. A one-off purchase can end up being more economical.
The rise of Premium VOD has also made home media more viable. Some PVOD releases have been priced around £15/$20 for a 24-hour rental. That’s as much as a new Blu-ray. Releasing Disney has announced plans to release their live-action version of Mulan on Disney+ with a price tag of $29.99. This is an extraordinarily high price and if someone decides to cancel their Disney+ subscription, they lose their copy of Mulan. Audiences may as well wait for the physical release or when the film becomes a part of the standard Disney+ package. If the Mulan experiment is successful, then what stops Disney from putting up a paywall on some of their classic films or TV shows? If you own a film or show on DVD or Blu-ray no one can take it away from you.
They have been attempts to make Digital Copies the new norm. But there have been failures on this front. Ultraviolent and Flixster were websites where people were able to store their movie collections. Both websites have shut down. If people buy a film from the wrong internet venter, they could lose all the films they have brought. Even if they store them on a hard drive they can still fail.
Of course, there is more to physical media than being a safety net to the whims of the streaming gods.  Due to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, I have become reacquainted with my DVD and Blu-ray collection. I have watched many favourites. Whilst the quality of some DVD doesn’t hold up, others like my copy of Terminator 2: Judgement Day still looks good. Blu-ray has two big advantages over streaming: video quality and reliability. The image from Blu-rays is often better than HD streaming and there have been slow moves towards 4K home entertainment.
Reliability for streaming is depending on a working internet connection. Everyone has suffered buffering at some point when watching a film on Netflix or Amazon or has had films suffer from some sort of lag. During the early stages of Lockdown in Europe Netflix had to downgrade its video quality so they could deal with the increased demand. People in rural areas can suffer lower internet speeds which affect their ability to stream. The only things required for physical media are devices and electricity. My own experience with physical media is I have only ever brought one disc that was faulty. And I have DVDs that are up to twenty years old and they still work.
The other benefit of physical media is the extra content. Extras have declined due to the streaming boom but there are still a selling point. Film fans are still interested in documentaries about the making of the film, deleted scenes, director’s commentaries, and in the case of animated films, short films. The Criterion Collection, Eureka’s Masters of Cinema, and Arrow Films have marketed themselves as high-end products that invest heavily in their special features and there are popular with film fans. Boxsets like the Alien Quadrilogy is highly regarded because of the number of extras and having both original and director’s cuts (or in Alien 3’s case, the Assembly Cut.) Extras also have the benefit to educate viewers about filmmaking and inspire younger people to make it into a hobby or career.
Many film fans are collectors and want to own many of their favourite films, regardless if there are available online. A big Star Wars fan most likely owns every film on some sort of physical media. Physical media also preserve films and they can be a way to view a film as it was intended. Some films and shows have been edited for Disney+ and The Simpsons episode featuring Michael Jackson isn’t even available on the service. Recent protests from the Black Lives Matter movement has led to some outlets pulling episodes and shows with controversial material – which means physical media was the only way to view them.
Home media for films and TV is at a crossroads. Even the greatest defenders of physical media will admit that streaming is here to stay. But with the over-saturation of streaming services physical media and ownership is still viable. Digital Media is becoming more popular. There are films that are cheap to buy or rent online and film and TV could go down a similar route to the music industry where most music was available to buy on iTunes and other venters. Or physical media could have a revival like books after the initial boom in e-books. Physical media, digital media, and streaming can co-exist.
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