Another reason why people across the globe will pirate instead of buying an expensive and limited subscription.
Edit: Changed to a non-paywalled article and added more to the title.
It most certainly feels like this was the thought process for this kinda thing:
We aren’t making enough money from our streaming service in Australia and New Zealand because they are buying DVDs/Blu-Ray so they can watch whenever they want.
How do we make more money, then?
Pretend that less people are interested in physical media and disregard literally everyone else who says otherwise!
I pirate my stuff anyway, so it’s safely stored in my NAS. But it’ll be a shame to see high quality Bluray media go away.
We need a “premium” streaming provider that can offer the same audio/video quality as 4K Blu-ray Discs. And then I’ll download those rips!
That already exists, it’s just locked to specific models of Sony TVs and very limited in selection
https://www.engadget.com/sony-bravo-core-bravia-xr-tv-091915867.html
There’s a bunch of info on Sony’s website too but it is so filled with trackers and pop up bullshit I figured the article was better.
Honestly I’m not surprised, I haven’t seen much of a physical media culture around these parts, and Australians who do actually want to own and collect dvds, bluerays or whatever, can also afford Amazon or some other provider. Though niche, I’ve seen more interest in collecting music in vinyl records, than in collecting movies as physical media.
All I’m saying is, if anything made piracy more popular here, it was the increase in streaming services prices and the poor variety of content forcing you to subscribe to too many platforms. I don’t mean to be a party pooper but I don’t believe this will make a big difference in either piracy or consumer satisfaction. The changes have already happened.
Back in the Era where the only streaming platform available here was Netflix, the only reason anyone had to pirate was when Foxtel held rights to shows like Game of Thrones and there was no legitimate way to watch it besides subscribing to a $50/month cable package.
Edit: Holy run on sentence. I’m sorry.
Agreed
They still make DVDs?
Yeah, despite being low quality and using outdated codecs conpared to Blu-ray and 4K UHD, DVDs still consistently outsell those two combined.
I actually find the quality of DVDs to be very good with the right equipment. I’ve seen DVDs projected in movie theaters and they look good. There are bad transfers and I’d certainly take a BluRay over a DVD if there’s an option, but overall DVDs are still a solid format that I still use regularly. I’ve never had the urge to actively seek out an update to something I already have on DVD, though I might grab an upgrade if I see a sale or the mood takes me.
Man, that’s such a shame. Disney has also shut down everything but Disney+ in Southeast Asia, so combined with this announcement, it seems pretty likely that they’ll pivot entirely to VOD worldwide.
The article appears to be paywalled. Can anyone post the contents or another website that doesn’t paywall their journalism?
Replaced the Forbes site with another site with the same topic.
The music industry has figured it out for those of us that are willing to pay if it’s easy. Lossless, high fidelity, DRM-free digital media is very easy to get these days for almost all artists, and the price is usually pretty reasonable.
There’s no physical production cost and infinite supply to worry about the cost of production and inventory with declining sales if the video media industry would be willing to do the same. I’m never buying digital video as it exists today, but I will if they learn the lessons of the music industry and make digital video media more convenient. I’m sure there are plenty like me that just want something convenient and consumer friendly, rather than anti-consumer
I recently got a record player because I have a lot of old vinyl. (yes I know it’s super toxic)
rummaged through the clearance bin, got a few cheap new ones, and most came with a download card for lossless files. I find it difficult to praise the music industry for anything but this is a huge step in the right direction.
Ok but are they still selling Blu-ray’s? Who cares about DVDs?
deleted by creator
