The Future of Home Video

[Drucker]

Speaking only for myself, streaming as a either a compliment to a home video collection, in instances as Michael has described or for the many films available on Criterion's streaming channel which once upon a time would have been released on Eclipse, makes perfect sense.

But I do think there is validity to the argument that streaming and physical media cannot coexist. It is simply a fact that the commercial viability of home video releases gets worse every year, and that's in large part or entirely due to the ubiquity of streaming as a replacement. On top of that, streaming itself is barely a commercially viable product, as most streaming services lose money or have historically lost money for their parent companies.

You extend the timeline far enough and there end up being four or five major streaming services and home video is extinct due to the pressing plant closures MichaelB has referenced could conceivably be a possibility if the majors get out of the home video business altogether.

[rrenault]

What I find ironic is that as home video is increasingly on life support we nonetheless have a much larger quantity of specialty fare available on home video than was the case 20-odd years ago when physical home video was at its peak.

Also, keep in mind that relying on physical media as one’s primary mode of film viewing can be quite costly and inconvenient if you live outside the world’s 3-4 largest media markets. It’s not like with music where you can walk into a store in Prague, Istanbul, or São Paulo and find most of the same albums you’d find at a well-stocked record shop in New York or London. Film distribution doesn’t work that way.

In short, a lot of physical media zealots where cinema is concerned forget not everyone lives in the U.S., UK, or Japan.

[Drucker]

What I find ironic is that as home video is increasingly on life support we nonetheless have a much larger quantity of specialty fare available on home video than was the case 20-odd years ago when physical home video was at its peak.

The advances in technology that have enabled and made easier digital film restoration have also been used for consumer electronics like TV. I'd argue it's the opposite of ironic!

[rrenault]

But there is something to be said in the anti-streaming argument in that the vast majority of people no longer collect physical media and instead rely on streaming platforms for their home entertainment. So by whole heartedly supporting streaming it makes physical releases less urgent for the rightsholders.

If the streaming/VOD model somehow imploded enabling physical rentals to make a comeback and fill the gap, I wouldn’t shed any tears(granted, I’m not sure which hypothetical sequence of events could precipitate such a development), although, again, I don’t think cinephiles living outside the main media markets like the U.S., Japan, etc would reap the benefits of a return to physical rentals, since film releases vary so much from country to country unlike with music. A country like Hungary or Slovenia isn’t getting Blu-ray releases of Rivette films if you get may drift.

[MichaelB]

I can't speak for Slovenia, but Hungary is barely getting Blu-rays of anything!

The sad fact is that in many, many countries it's only ever been an expensive niche format aimed at the well-heeled, and the last time I was in a branch of Empik in Poland I couldn't find any Blu-rays at all, whereas five years ago there'd have been an entire wall of them. And while I'm keen to buy the 4K UHDs of Pharaoh and The Promised Land that were released late last year, I've yet to get round to actually ordering them because I like to order a dozen or so discs in one go to keep postage per item down, and there's very, very little that I don't already have—and my last bulk Polish order was well over a year ago. These days, there's a lot more popping up on Netflix than there is on Polish home video labels.