Dan Rayburn, a media and streaming analyst, explained:
“From a consumer standpoint, what they want is they want to be able to always have access to their content. The part that really confuses consumers is because they don’t understand how content is licensed. They do get confused when one day content is on a service and then disappears or the content is still in the service, but it’s only X number of seasons


With the writer’s strike currently underway, it has highlighted to many people how residual payments work, where actors and creators get paid continuously for their work on films and shows, as they’ve been for home video releases and television syndication for decades And residuals for streaming is a major sticking point for the writer’s strike.

One thing many people aren’t aware of, is while Disney might own a show or film, things are a little more complicated, as internally, different divisions are still having to licence the content from one another. So on paper, the balance sheet must reflect this. For example, NBC Universal had to pay itself $500 million for the rights to “The Office” for Peacock and Warner Brothers Discovery paid itself $425 million for the streaming rights to “Friends”.


“Much like syndication of Hollywood’s yesteryear, streaming services must pay for the right to host a title”


Looking at the data from Parrot Analytics, it’s easy to see why some content was removed, as in the first quarter of the year, the demand for the dozens of shows and movies that have been recently cut from Disney+ represented only 1.9% of the total Disney+ catalogue. For comparison, “The Mandalorian” accounted for 1.3% of total demand during the same period. Similarly, the removed titles for Hulu accounted for just 0.4% of demand on the streaming service. Showcasing that the content removed, was done because hardly anyone was watching them.

But, it’s important to remember, that streaming services are not permanent libraries. They adjust to viewing habits, licenses and contracts expire, plus companies merge, go bankrupt or just simply close down platforms. Opening many to think about reverting to collecting films on physical media once again, though that also comes with some problems, such as format changes, and device availability. Digital purchases also aren’t completely safe either, as some titles are sometimes removed, or platforms closed.