The parity of environmental impact of a physical disc versus streaming a movie is 4 play throughs. So, if you play your blu-ray / 4K disc 5 times, it is more environmentally conscious than streaming the movie from a data server.
I think what they’re talking about is buying online without physical media, but still owning what you bought, as in, the actual movie, as a file on your disk. Best of both worlds - no plastic, no servers necessary for playback after a one time download. That is how things should work.
The parity of environmental impact of a physical disc versus streaming a movie is 4 play throughs. So, if you play your blu-ray / 4K disc 5 times, it is more environmentally conscious than streaming the movie from a data server.
Source: https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/05/discs-vs-data-are-we-helping-the-environment-by-streaming/
I think what they’re talking about is buying online without physical media, but still owning what you bought, as in, the actual movie, as a file on your disk. Best of both worlds - no plastic, no servers necessary for playback after a one time download. That is how things should work.