I know you can buy access to content to some TV shows on the Apple store, Amazon and the Microsoft Store - but these are still subject to geoblocks, not accessible in many countries and only offer a relatively small selection of TV shows anyway (and even then they’re subject to this shit.)
Think about how video games have been fundamentally transformed. You can buy the majority of video games on Steam (or just use other similar apps). They’re all basically released everywhere on day 1. They’re automatically yours forever (until such a potential when Steam goes down - but you can easily extract and secure the files if you worry about that).
The same is not remotely true with TV. I understand that multiple streaming services were obviously going to emerge as TV production expanded. I understand that expecting to be able to watch everything on Netflix for £9.99 a month was never going to be realistic. But alongside these streaming services, a Steam-type client should’ve emerged allowing people to just buy seasons of content on the services. For people who want to legally keep what they watch, paying something like £5-15 per season (with sales much like Steam). No geoblocks. No restrictions.
I say this because in many cases I have had no choice but to pirate to watch a TV show season. It literally was not available to me through any legal source. I could not digitally buy it, nor was any streaming service accessible to me carrying it. This is now happening to Americans more and more (I am not American) with European series being heavily delayed. The last season of Babylon Berlin released in October. It’s carried by Netflix in the USA, who are clearly not interested in acquiring the latest season - and are probably holding the content hostage (or Sky are being obstructive). It’s also not accessible in France or many other European countries too.The show has suffered from staggered international releases since it was initially released, essentially throttling its popularity potential (most expensive German series ever made at one point).
As for me? I’m British. I could not, and still can’t watch the second season of Balkan Shadows anywhere legally according to Justwatch. Paris Police 1900 season 2 is also still not accessible for me. This is really quite pathetic when you think about music and video games.
I know you didn’t mean renting, but you don’t truly own the shows you buy on Amazon Video. As I referred to here.
Oh sure, but you can still buy the games from Gamepass independently, right?
You don’t own the stuff you buy from steam either. It’s all just added to an account that you happen to have access to. It’s the exact same situation. The only thing you can own is physical disks, everything else is just something you are given access to.
You can buy games from gamepass independently today, but just like music, film, and TV, that will change as it all moves to only streaming over the next decade. It’s literally happened exactly like this over and over.
This is true, although Steam have said if they ever shut down you’ll keep your access to the games. And you can easily rip them from Steam anyway. You do literally have the files.
We can only wait and see if they do that, and only offer games via a subscription service. I personally don’t think that will happen.