Many companies would like consumers to ditch their infatuation with old-fashioned DVDs and Blu-ray discs and fully embrace digital media for their purchases and rentals. Consumers are still answering that desire with a big “nah.”
According to new data from research firm GfK, consumers prefer DVDs and other physical media, with their included director’s cuts, audio commentary, and special features, over digital offerings. GfK found that only 46 percent of its survey respondents have rented or purchased a move digitally, versus 86 percent that have bought or rented a physical disc.
The main reason respondents said they weren’t downloading movies as rentals or purchases was subscription streaming video. Two-thirds of people who don’t buy or rent digital media use streaming video services.
David Tice, GfK’s SVP of media and entertainment, said the following:
“Our research clearly shows that most ‘digital-nevers’ have histories renting or buying TV shows and movies in physical form,”
Do you still like old school discs when it comes to movie rentals and purchases, Insiders?
[via Home Media Magazine]
Yes! I like the DVD in my hand……
Just like I like my Laser Disc & VHS Tapes in my hand…
Yes I do have NetFlix, Hulu, and Amazon online….
But still like my DVD’s. And all.
Yes, I prefer the permanence of physical media. Who knows if the digital companies will still be there in 5 years? I can still play my VHS tapes, my laserdiscs, my DVDs, and my BluRays as long as I have working hardware.
That being said, lately I’ve been buying the BluRay/DVD/Digital versions of movies. I watch the digital version for the convenience, and keep the physical copies for my library.
In most cases of “buying” digital, one doesn’t actually own anything. One purchases the permission of an outside entity to have access to a thing that said outside entity owns, and allows you to view. Unless a person has a completely unrestricted, DRM free file, located on one’s own storage medium . . . you down own a damn thing.
If I have a disk, it’s mine. I can play it, I can let someone borrow it, I can use it in an area that doesn’t have internet access, I can shelve it for ten years not worry about a password or that the hosting media company has gone out of business or retroactively applied additional restrictions. None of that really applies, in any kind of reliable way, to digital media (save for the one example I noted above).
“…infatuation with old-fashioned DVDs and Blu-ray discs and fully embrace digital media…”
Hmm… Could it be because discs *are* digital media – and more so than streamed video? The word “medium” means “middle”, i.e., what is in the middle between the desired content and the consumer. Therefore, media is always physical – in the case of streaming, it is the storage servers, the network equipment and cables, and your decoding device. This is the reason for the constant confusion. In fact, down the article, “digital media” is used in the other sense: “…people who don’t buy or rent digital media use streaming video services.” (come on, Shane!)
And the reason why the content owners proliferate the confusion is because they don’t want you to think of the actual difference, which you all know and was outlined in the comments above: the robustness of ownership. Since with streaming (or DRM-protected media) all we ever get is a license to the work, they have no legal obligation to continue providing access to it. While with discs and open files, you have the ability to preserve it in perpetuity.
I buy content that has UltraViolet which does keep your rights in a digital locker so if one company closes you can use your rights on another that participates. The only reason I don’t really ever rent digital is normally it’s like $5.99 or something similarly high. Redbox is $1.49 DVD or $1.99 Blu and I’ll deal with fingerprint issues over it. They have been stripping rental versions of bonus content from physical media and now adding more to digital so once more time passes and digital has survived longer and the prices better match, then I see no reason why digital won’t prevail. The studios control what they put out. Eventually they will stop releasing some titles physical at all I imagine
Physicals FTW!