Opinion: Physical Media is More Important Than Ever

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.” - George Orwell

It is a depressing way to begin the article, but there is plenty of truth to it. We take for granted the material things we hold most dear each day. Our electronics, our vehicles, our food, among other things.

The main point though is that we did not take for granted one thing we decided to throw away, in favor of a more “convenient online” platform. We did not take for granted our physical media, the media that contained the movies and television we watched, or even the video games we played.

Recently, Best Buy moved to terminate sections of the store that were previously dedicated to holding disc copies of new movie releases.

Also, the Walt Disney Company, after previously acknowledging the importance of physical media sales, has now decided to reverse its decision by scaling back its physical media.

Shows like “WandaVision,” “Loki” and “The Mandalorian,” which originally used to be streaming exclusives, were eventually put on Blu-Rays for loyal fans and collectors, but now that means opportunities like that will not happen for a long time or ever again.

What do George Orwell, companies scaling back physical media production, and not taking the physical mediums for granted, have to do... with anything?

Think of collecting physical media of movies or TV shows as a way of “preserving history” or obtaining “historical documents.” It’s odd to think that your DVD of “Ratatouille” can be thought of as a “historical document,” or that your grandparents' VHS copy of a “How-To Fly-Fishing" video is something worth preserving.

What’s important about the many years of film history is what they can tell us about not only our American culture but also about cultures from around the world from specific periods of time.

In a way, your DVD copy of “Ratatouille” can tell us about the state of animation in the 2000s, the technology that was used to put the film together, the current cultural state of France (the film’s location), and represent the vision of the director, Brad Bird.

Besides “Ratatouille,” that’s not including examples of trillions of films that have been made from the 1890s to 2024. There’s so much to learn from/about, and so much to experience in film/television culture. Unfortunately, we can’t learn from everything if everything is not preserved.

Before the 1980s, the notion of preserving film and television was not a common or even welcome idea. In fact, it’s estimated that as of last year, 80-90% of films from the ‘silent era’ are either incomplete or lost.

Even a famous director like Alfred Hitchcock has missing films. His 1926 silent drama, “The Mountain Eagle”, is one of the most notable examples of a lost film and is still the most wanted film in the world.

In the realm of television, the BBC Network has been notorious for not preserving its earlier programs. Since videotape was expensive to mass produce before the 1990s, instead of acquiring new blank videotape, networks would just re-record over preexisting shows.

This effectively wiped whatever 1960s or 1970s show was on the tape beforehand, meaning more history to be lost. One notable example of this is a famous interview with Paul McCartney and John Lennon that’s now long gone.

You can see why preservation efforts are so imperative, because of so much lost history. It’s really a relief every time the Library of Congress inducts a film print of a movie or TV show episode into its archives.

The reasoning behind not preserving older films in the past initially was that many people in the 1920s and 1930s did not see film as a medium that would endure. Many back in the day thought that motion pictures would be a fad that would eventually fade away. Well... not exactly.

Thankfully, historians, filmmakers, media moguls, and television executives would recognize the importance of preserving what films we can and restore them so audiences can see movies in a pristine condition.

As home video started taking off, film fans and collectors recognized the importance of collecting everything that they love or even sort of like. It’s good advice: collect everything on physical media that you cherish and hold most dear.

Modern corporations don’t see it that way, though. It’s all in favor of the content on a streaming platform, content just to fill a space.

Not to mention, films can suddenly disappear off platforms when companies want to dispose of them. If you have Netflix because your favorite twenty movies are there, chances are at least eighteen or nineteen will quickly leave, sometimes because of a rights dispute, or simply just because.

It’s entirely possible for media companies to rid a streaming service of a series or a movie simply because they don’t want it there. THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE IT.

But if you had it at home, you could watch it whenever you want. Now media corporations and TV companies are going out of their way to make sure audiences don’t see something they might enjoy.

This is where the importance of collecting physical media comes in handy. Preserve what we can of our entertainment so future generations can see what we grew up with before it’s gone for good.

If Peacock decides that something about “The Office” just doesn’t sit right with them, have no fear. You have the complete series on DVD sitting on your shelf. Who needs Peacock to tell us what to watch anyway?

The world of entertainment may be in for dark times if the aspect of preservation doesn’t get protected. There could be decades worth of movies or shows that might never be seen again if we don’t start doing something... or even start collecting physical media.