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Sep. 20th, 2016
Physical vs Streaming
Sep. 20th, 2016 10:17 pmI've noticed that "Agents of SHIELD" season 3 is not available on DVD or BluRay in the US. It is available on streaming media.
And I wonder if the media studios have missed something.
When I was a kid, TV shows were "transient". You watched them the day they were shown, or you didn't. So you would make sure you were in front of the the TV to watch Blakes 7, because if you missed it then you missed it.
What this _also_ meant was the TV was "memory based". All you ever had was your memory. Now repeats meant that you might be able to refresh your memory, but you rarely went out of your way to watch a repeat the way you watched the original.
Until the VHS revolution.
Now we had the ability to buy a "permanent" copy of the show. And I spent a lot of money on tapes, from (then) modern shows like Babylon 5 to older shows such as Space 1999 or Sapphire and Steel. Indeed these VHS copies allowed me to catch up on episodes that I had missed. And I was able to rewatch them whenever I liked.
DVDs and BluRays furthered this. I have a gazillion shows from the 70s,80s, 90s (Knight Rider, Equalizer, all the Dr Who's from Pertwee onwards...). These have a sense of permanence.
More recently, the studios would release a DVD set of the previous season a month or two before the current season. So I just re-watched "Supernatural Season 11". I actually pay a premium to get them on release day (rather than waiting 6 months to a year) so I can refresh my memory before the new season. (This actually causes problems when 3 different shows would come out at the same time; I had a month to watch 66 or more episodes!).
But streaming media doesn't have this sense of permanency. It's more transient. I might watch (and did watch) Daredevil on Netflix, but I won't _rewatch_ it. I won't spend $$$ to rewatch SHIELD season 3 on Amazon Prime, but I _will_ pay for the physical media.
In this respect streaming media is a step backwards; it's gone back to a "watch once and done" model.
So here's a call out to ABC and Marvell and the rest... keep releasing the physical media. Otherwise I'm going to be less invested in your shows; less reason to watch them; less reason to spend money on them.
And I wonder if the media studios have missed something.
When I was a kid, TV shows were "transient". You watched them the day they were shown, or you didn't. So you would make sure you were in front of the the TV to watch Blakes 7, because if you missed it then you missed it.
What this _also_ meant was the TV was "memory based". All you ever had was your memory. Now repeats meant that you might be able to refresh your memory, but you rarely went out of your way to watch a repeat the way you watched the original.
Until the VHS revolution.
Now we had the ability to buy a "permanent" copy of the show. And I spent a lot of money on tapes, from (then) modern shows like Babylon 5 to older shows such as Space 1999 or Sapphire and Steel. Indeed these VHS copies allowed me to catch up on episodes that I had missed. And I was able to rewatch them whenever I liked.
DVDs and BluRays furthered this. I have a gazillion shows from the 70s,80s, 90s (Knight Rider, Equalizer, all the Dr Who's from Pertwee onwards...). These have a sense of permanence.
More recently, the studios would release a DVD set of the previous season a month or two before the current season. So I just re-watched "Supernatural Season 11". I actually pay a premium to get them on release day (rather than waiting 6 months to a year) so I can refresh my memory before the new season. (This actually causes problems when 3 different shows would come out at the same time; I had a month to watch 66 or more episodes!).
But streaming media doesn't have this sense of permanency. It's more transient. I might watch (and did watch) Daredevil on Netflix, but I won't _rewatch_ it. I won't spend $$$ to rewatch SHIELD season 3 on Amazon Prime, but I _will_ pay for the physical media.
In this respect streaming media is a step backwards; it's gone back to a "watch once and done" model.
So here's a call out to ABC and Marvell and the rest... keep releasing the physical media. Otherwise I'm going to be less invested in your shows; less reason to watch them; less reason to spend money on them.