Often this is because neither streaming nor selling physical media is “worth it” for the parent company. Setting up even a simplified BD release takes tons of money because it’s not as simple as the copyright owner taking ready to use final renditions and burning it to a disk, there’s a whole process that goes into taking the masters and getting the highest possible quality digital copies off them, encoding appropriately for the disks, etc., and that’s not even mentioning the physical production of the disks, cases, booklets, etc., and getting a distribution deal with the right sellers and so on. What seems like a no brainer “you have a product, I want to buy that product, sell me that product” isn’t so simple after all.
Same goes for streaming albeit differently. The rights owner needs to create a streaming compatible release from the master (or sometimes even from the existing physical copy masters!), pay residuals after every playback, AND it has to bring new viewers to the platform for it to be profitable. Adding content just because existing users demand it - users who will 95-99% of the time will still stick with the platform even if they don’t get what they want - is not profitable, as it brings in no extra revenue.
Then there’s licensing. A lot of TV shows and movies are stuck in perpetual licensing hell because even though the trademark and franchise ownership lies with one company, long term rights usage has been sold to third parties as a way to have the IP generate revenue. Foe example, Paramount didn’t start their own streaming for years because all their IP has been sold for 5-7 year terms to e.g. Netflix. Why start a platform if you can literally not put your own product there? Or take HBO - since all Warner Brothers licensing was done in 10 year exclusive blocks with SkyTV, HBO (Go, Max, Plus, etc.) literally couldn’t enter the UK market because ALL the content was licensed out to another company who was promised exclusive rights within the UK for that time period…
I fully agree that going after piracy when you’re not willing to provide your content for legal procurement, is a bit hypocritical, and shouldn’t be a thing.
Often this is because neither streaming nor selling physical media is “worth it” for the parent company. Setting up even a simplified BD release takes tons of money because it’s not as simple as the copyright owner taking ready to use final renditions and burning it to a disk, there’s a whole process that goes into taking the masters and getting the highest possible quality digital copies off them, encoding appropriately for the disks, etc., and that’s not even mentioning the physical production of the disks, cases, booklets, etc., and getting a distribution deal with the right sellers and so on. What seems like a no brainer “you have a product, I want to buy that product, sell me that product” isn’t so simple after all.
Same goes for streaming albeit differently. The rights owner needs to create a streaming compatible release from the master (or sometimes even from the existing physical copy masters!), pay residuals after every playback, AND it has to bring new viewers to the platform for it to be profitable. Adding content just because existing users demand it - users who will 95-99% of the time will still stick with the platform even if they don’t get what they want - is not profitable, as it brings in no extra revenue.
Then there’s licensing. A lot of TV shows and movies are stuck in perpetual licensing hell because even though the trademark and franchise ownership lies with one company, long term rights usage has been sold to third parties as a way to have the IP generate revenue. Foe example, Paramount didn’t start their own streaming for years because all their IP has been sold for 5-7 year terms to e.g. Netflix. Why start a platform if you can literally not put your own product there? Or take HBO - since all Warner Brothers licensing was done in 10 year exclusive blocks with SkyTV, HBO (Go, Max, Plus, etc.) literally couldn’t enter the UK market because ALL the content was licensed out to another company who was promised exclusive rights within the UK for that time period…
I fully agree that going after piracy when you’re not willing to provide your content for legal procurement, is a bit hypocritical, and shouldn’t be a thing.
You’re triggering my Cyberpunk PTSD…