In the past people still would rent more than they owned. They just traded having to visit a store with a selection limited by physical space for an instantly available digital service.
But you'd never show up to a Hollywood Video looking to rent Terminator 2 and get told that it's a Blockbuster exclusive rental. There were Blockbuster exclusive movies, but they all sucked so it didn't matter.
Netflix Streaming gave bigger selection and instant access. You could get 15 minutes into a movie, realize it sucks, and you didn't have to drive back to the video store for a different one.
Nowadays the selection on any streaming service feels like 1/3 of what a VHS rental place would have. Sure there's more actual quantity, but it's like the $1 rental bin. Currently, if you pick X popular movie and Y streaming service, odds are you cannot watch it on that streaming service.
>There were Blockbuster exclusive movies, but they all sucked so it didn't matter.
I mean, it sounds like they simply learned their lesson. Or got more budget to publish such stuff. Same tactics but now more effective after giving what the audience actually wants.
Its certainly an interesting phenomenon. Hosting brick and mortar is crazy expensive so it makes sense to delegate that. Hosting servers is cheaper and way more scalable (mostly dealing with country laws instead of every single nuldijg regulation code), so it's no surprise studios want to self-distribute now that the barrier lowered.
But you'd never show up to a Hollywood Video looking to rent Terminator 2 and get told that it's a Blockbuster exclusive rental. There were Blockbuster exclusive movies, but they all sucked so it didn't matter.
Netflix Streaming gave bigger selection and instant access. You could get 15 minutes into a movie, realize it sucks, and you didn't have to drive back to the video store for a different one.
Nowadays the selection on any streaming service feels like 1/3 of what a VHS rental place would have. Sure there's more actual quantity, but it's like the $1 rental bin. Currently, if you pick X popular movie and Y streaming service, odds are you cannot watch it on that streaming service.