Hi Reader,

STREAMING WAS CONVENIENT. THEN IT BECAME A SCAM.

Issue 01 | Approximately 12 minutes

Like most families, we subscribe to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. This should give us more than enough to watch. In practice, finding a particular film often means searching one service after another, checking whether it has moved, and then discovering that it is only available through an additional channel or rental. The process has become irritating enough that I sometimes give up before we have chosen anything.

Streaming was a good proposition when the services first became popular. The catalogues were broad, the monthly cost was reasonable and the experience was easier than buying or renting individual films. Most households still had their DVDs, CDs and games. Streaming provided another way to access media and there was little reason to object to it.

The economics have changed. Content owners have launched their own platforms and withdrawn titles from competitors. Prices have risen. Advertising has returned, including on services which customers already pay to access. Films and programmes move between catalogues according to licensing decisions that have nothing to do with the customer. We now pay several companies each month and still cannot assume that a film will be available when we want to watch it.

The word “subscription” accurately describes the arrangement. We are paying for continuing access to the current catalogue. The confusion begins when platforms use the word “purchase”. Many customers reasonably assume that a purchased film belongs to them. The legal and technical position is quite different. What they have usually bought is a licence attached to an account and subject to the platform's continuing ability to provide the title.

This matters because the distinction is no longer theoretical. Purchased films have disappeared from customers' libraries. The companies involved can point to the terms of service, but that does little to address the substance of the complaint. A transaction presented as a sale should provide something more durable than access which lasts until a distribution agreement expires.

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WHAT A DIGITAL PURCHASE ACTUALLY GIVES YOU

When I buy a Blu-ray, I take possession of a copy. The retailer can close and the distributor can lose its contract without affecting the disc on my shelf. I can use it on another compatible player, lend it to somebody or sell it. The useful life of the purchase is determined mainly by the condition of the disc and the availability of working hardware.

A digital film depends on several parties after the sale has been completed. The platform must continue operating. The account must remain accessible. Its licensing arrangement must permit continued delivery in the customer's territory. The software, authentication systems and supported devices must also remain functional. Failure at any of these points can affect access to the film.

Sony has provided several useful examples. In 2022, PlayStation customers in Germany and Austria were told that hundreds of StudioCanal titles they had purchased would be removed because of licensing arrangements. In 2023, Sony announced the removal of purchased Discovery content. That decision was later reversed after a new agreement was reached. The reversal was welcome, although it also demonstrated that continued access depended on a commercial negotiation between two companies.

The UK case is more serious. Sony's own legal notice set 1 September 2026 as the date when affected StudioCanal titles would become inaccessible and be removed from customers' video libraries. The list runs to hundreds of films and programmes. It includes titles such as Paddington, Paddington 2, The Imitation Game, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Moonlight and Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut. These are recognisable, mainstream works which customers paid to add to their libraries.

The earlier German and Austrian case received limited attention outside those countries. That is understandable because media rights are territorial. It is also why the case deserves attention. A platform can appear reliable in one market after customers elsewhere have already discovered the limits of its purchase model. Local licensing failures are easy to dismiss until they occur in your own library.

Games involve a slightly different set of risks. The end of a publishing contract usually leads to a game being withdrawn from sale. Existing owners will often retain the ability to download and play it. There is no general process under which every delisted game is automatically deleted from customers' hard drives. Even so, games can stop functioning when authentication is withdrawn, servers are closed or a licence is revoked. The local installation offers little protection if the game requires an external system to authorise or operate it.

I have run into a version of this through Steam. I can't recall the title and sequence well enough to present it as a case study. The experience still changed how I viewed the library attached to my account. It contained products I had paid for, yet my ability to use them depended on decisions made elsewhere.

Gabe Newell made the relevant commercial point years ago when he said, “Piracy is not a pricing issue. It's a service issue.” Steam succeeded because it gave customers a simpler and more reliable experience than piracy. The same was true of the early streaming services. People will generally pay for a service that works well and provides fair value.

The legitimate route has since become more complicated. A household may need several subscriptions, separate rental payments and a willingness to follow titles between platforms. There are advertisements, regional restrictions and variable picture quality. Purchased content can also be withdrawn. Piracy remains unlawful, but the commercial lesson is obvious: making the lawful service worse will increase the attraction of the alternative.

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QUALITY, COST AND THE CASE FOR DISCS

Blu-ray also has practical advantages. Picture and audio quality are usually more consistent because the disc can carry data at a much higher bitrate than a streaming service. Streaming platforms need to deliver video efficiently across millions of internet connections. Their files are heavily compressed and the service may adjust quality according to bandwidth, device or network conditions. Dark scenes, film grain, smoke and fast movement tend to show the limits of that compression.

A well-produced 4K Blu-ray can deliver video at several times the bitrate of a typical 4K stream. Many discs also include lossless audio formats which are rarely available through streaming. Playback is consistent because it does not depend on the internet connection. The purchaser knows which cut, soundtrack and special features are included in that edition.

Special features used to be a normal part of buying a film. Commentaries, documentaries, deleted scenes and interviews explained how the work was made. Some releases included booklets or several versions of the film. These materials have gradually disappeared from the standard streaming experience. The service is designed to move the viewer towards the next title, so there is little commercial incentive to help them spend another hour studying the one they have just watched.

Cost is more difficult to compare because viewing habits differ. A household that watches a wide range of new material may obtain good value from a subscription. Someone who repeatedly watches a smaller number of favourite films may be paying for the same access year after year. Three subscriptions can amount to several hundred pounds annually. The expenditure leaves no transferable asset and has to continue if access is to be retained.

I have been building a DVD library gradually for years and have started buying more Blu-rays over the last year or so. I am concentrating on films and programmes that we are likely to watch again, along with titles which regularly disappear from streaming services. Second-hand discs make this affordable. Blu-ray is now the sensible default for most purchases, with 4K reserved for films where the transfer and production quality justify the additional cost.

Physical media is still a much smaller market than it was at its peak. Overall sales have declined and it would be misleading to describe the present interest as a mass revival. The high-quality end of the market is growing. Reported sales of 4K Blu-ray rose by 19.5% in Britain and 12% in the United States during 2025. Boutique labels continue to commission restorations and release carefully produced editions for collectors who care about presentation, quality and permanence.

Hardware availability may become a constraint. Several manufacturers have left the player market and the remaining machines can be expensive. Sony ended production of recordable Blu-ray media, MiniDiscs and MiniDV cassettes in February 2025. This announcement concerned blank recording media. It did not end production of pressed Blu-ray films. Sony has also announced that new games released on PlayStation consoles will be digital-only from January 2028, with games released before that date unaffected. Each decision reduces the long-term availability of a physical format.

Anyone building a disc library should therefore think about the player as part of the collection. A spare machine may eventually be worthwhile, particularly for people with a large number of discs. The same principle applies to cables, remote controls and specialist equipment. Media is only useful when the equipment required to play it remains available.

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THE RITUAL OF PHYSICAL MEDIA

The experience begins before the film starts. You go to the shelf, look through the cases and make a selection. You take out the disc, place it in the player and sit down. It is a small routine, but it creates a definite point at which browsing ends and watching begins.

Streaming interfaces encourage a different behaviour. Large catalogues produce a surprising amount of indecision. The service continues presenting alternatives because continued browsing is part of the product. People can spend twenty minutes looking for the ideal choice and then settle for something they did not particularly want to watch. I have done this often enough to recognise the pattern.

A shelf provides a visible record of the family's interests. The cover art and arrangement of the collection help us remember what we own. A visitor may notice a film and start a conversation about it. Children can browse the collection without recommendations being filtered through a profile or shaped by a promotional agreement. None of this is essential to viewing a film, but it affects how films are selected and remembered.

Physical lending is another useful feature which digital platforms have largely removed. Giving somebody a disc is straightforward and carries a degree of personal recommendation. The recipient can watch it without opening an account, accepting a trial or finding the correct service. When they return it, there is usually a conversation about the film. That social element was once an ordinary part of owning media.

Older formats came with inconveniences. Rental discs were sometimes scratched and videotapes had to be rewound. Nobody needs to romanticise those problems. Possession still gave the household control. A film remained available in the home, and the household decided when and how it would be used.

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MINIDISC, CASSETTE AND PERSONAL RECORDINGS

I still have a MiniDisc player and recorder. I used it to copy CDs, record programmes from the radio and capture conversations. I also own a Sony WM-BF608 cassette and radio recorder. That was used for lectures, radio programmes and family conversations. It has spent years without regular use and remains in perfect working order.

The ability to record was important. Radio programmes and lectures were broadcast at a fixed time. Recording allowed them to be kept, replayed and shared. Family conversations had no commercial value to anybody, but that did not affect their personal value. The recording belonged to the person who made it and could remain private.

MiniDisc was particularly well designed for this purpose. Its magneto-optical disc sits inside a protective cartridge, which reduces exposure to dust, fingerprints and scratches. Recordings can be divided, moved, deleted and rewritten. The format is durable, although no storage medium should be treated as immune to age or failure. Irreplaceable recordings still need a second copy.

Nostalgia has helped revive interest in MiniDisc and cassette equipment. The use case remains sound. Dedicated equipment performs a defined task and continues doing so without a software subscription. The controls are physical, the recording is local and the owner decides how the material is organised. There is very little administrative overhead after the equipment has been purchased.

Personal audio libraries are also returning in digital form. People are ripping CDs, digitising old recordings and using dedicated portable players. Local storage gives them control over file quality, organisation and backup. It is particularly useful for spoken-word material because lectures, audiobooks and radio plays often remain relevant for many years. A streaming provider has little reason to retain obscure material which attracts a small audience.

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THE SNOWSKY ECHO MINI

I plan to buy a FiiO/SNOWSKY Echo Mini, or a similar dedicated player. Its appearance is clearly influenced by portable cassette players from the 1980s. The controls are physical and the screen can display a cassette-style animation. The design has some fun with nostalgia without compromising the underlying specification.

The player supports DSD, WAV, FLAC, APE, MP3, M4A and OGG files. It has 8 GB of internal storage and accepts a microSD card of up to 256 GB. There are 3.5 mm and balanced 4.4 mm outputs, Bluetooth 5.3, adjustable gain and a custom equaliser. Battery life is stated at more than fifteen h

My main use will be in the car through the AUX input. A 256 GB card can hold a substantial library of audiobooks, lectures, radio shows, plays, podcasts and personal recordings. Music can be stored in FLAC where sound quality matters. Spoken-word files can use sensible compression to make better use of the available storage. Once copied to the card, the library remains available without mobile reception.

The product appeals to me because the transaction is straightforward. FiiO sells the hardware. I supply the library. The continuing usefulness of the device does not depend on a monthly payment or an agreement between two media companies.

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THE SAME ISSUE IS DEVELOPING IN SOFTWARE

Subscription software is justified when the supplier continues to provide an identifiable service. Hosting, security monitoring, live data and transaction processing create ongoing costs. Regular payment is reasonable where those services are genuinely required.

The model becomes harder to defend when a basic utility is placed behind a permanent subscription. Software that was previously sold for a one-off fee may receive only modest updates, yet the customer must continue paying to retain access. A few pounds per month appears manageable in isolation. The total becomes material when the same model is applied to office software, design tools, storage, accounting, security, entertainment and a collection of smaller applications.

Recurring revenue is attractive to software companies and their investors. It improves forecasting and can increase the lifetime value of each customer. Those commercial advantages explain the scale of the change. They do not automatically create equivalent value for the customer.

There is already demand for perpetual licences, local-first applications and self-hosted tools. These products will continue to occupy a minority position because many customers prefer managed services. They still provide an important alternative. A perpetual licence places the upgrade decision with the customer. Local storage reduces dependence on a supplier. Open file formats make it easier to move data when the product is no longer suitable.

The decision should be based on the service being provided. I am comfortable paying a subscription where there is a real continuing cost and continuing value. I am becoming much less willing to rent a static tool simply because the supplier prefers recurring revenue.

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A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO OWNERSHIP

I expect to keep some streaming services. They remain useful for discovering new films, watching a series once and providing entertainment when away from home. My concern is dependence. A household which relies entirely on streaming has little control over availability, quality or future cost.

I will continue buying physical copies of films and programmes we expect to watch again. Blu-ray will be the normal format, with 4K used selectively. I also intend to retain the equipment needed to play the collection. There is little benefit in owning hundreds of discs if a failed player cannot be replaced at a reasonable cost.

For audio, the priority is a well-organised local library which can be used on a computer, dedicated player and in the car. Old personal recordings should be digitised and backed up. The original MiniDiscs and cassettes can still be retained because they are physical source copies.

I will apply a similar test to software. The first question is whether the subscription funds a genuine continuing service. The second is whether my data can be exported in a useful form. The third is what happens when I stop paying. The answers usually reveal whether the customer is buying a service or accepting long-term dependency.

Ownership requires some effort. Discs occupy space, local files need organisation and backups need to be maintained. These are manageable costs. They are also visible costs, which makes them easier to assess than a collection of direct debits and licences whose limitations only become apparent when something goes wrong.

The current media model gives the supplier a great deal of continuing control after the customer has paid. Sony's removal notices make that unusually clear. I would rather retain control over the films, recordings and software which matter to me. A shelf of discs and a properly maintained local library remain the most reliable way to do that.

If you have lost access to something you believed you had purchased, reply and tell me what happened. I am interested in examples involving films, games, books, audio and software. I suspect there are far more of them than most people realise.

Until next time,

Saif

Business. Strategy. Execution. Life.

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