There's basically only one major retailer for physical media, JB hifi here in Australia. The other major retailers all dropped media. When Disney plus happened it hurt sales a lot. I worked in retail and saw less Disney getting sold. Now that retailer has dropped media all together, only JB hifi left and online only retailers. It's a Shame because media in general were selling good. Even low budget movie new releases sold well. They just abandoned a good thing.
This is a shame it is the way I buy Disney’s movies. Sad for Australia this is not accessible Disney products. I don’t live in Australia but will not do Disney+.
I think that the licensing deal is what they are trying to achieve, especially with Australia since the discs are generally European discs and they are imported there afterwards and repackaged in some sort of way. I think they want to license to someone and have them print the discs there, which is cheaper than printing overseas and import them. Would probably take the price down. It could be that or they are just ending all existing physical endeavors because, again, Iger said they want to push physical again back in march, and they might need to rework their modus operandi if they want to achieve that, and yeah it might be easier to kill everything existing and relaunch.
Australia should just rescind Disney's copyright protection and place everything Disney in the public domain. If Disney won't support Australia, then Australia shouldn't protect Disney. .
As an Australian physical media collector I can tell you that postage is hugely expensive, and if its not, it takes weeks and weeks for simple DVD or CD to get to use here. This is such devastating news, but sadly, the first of many dominos to fall in this country in relation to physical media
Postage is expensive but it’s mitigated a fair bit by our high wages. The average Australian has literally twice the annual income of his American counterpart, though of course, he pays more for everything.
@@fbboringstuff It evens out for us, I'd still rather live in Aus than the US, our standard of living is still higher despite paying more for everything (because we import almost everything).
Disney are destroying IPs and now discontinuing physical media. Just when I think they can't do more damage to themselves and our favourite film franchises...
It’s horrible that they bought out 20th Century Fox etc as all the quality content on Disney plus comes from… well anything but Disney (at least anything they’ve done recently).
As an Australian DVD/Blu-Ray collector, I literally cried when I heard the news. I've been a life long Disney fan, and I've been a DVD collector since I was 12 years old. Fortunately I have MOST of the classic Disney and Pixar animated films in my collection. I talked with a local DVD specialty shop I go to, and he said he hasn't heard anything about it (…yet), and considering Sanity deleted their tweet, he speculates it MAY just be Sanity using fear mongering tactics to drive up their sales (i.e. this is all the last Disney DVD and Blu-Rays they have in stock), because otherwise he said it would be REALLY STUPID on their part since not everyone in Australia can afford Disney Plus, and getting rid of physical media down here would only drive up piracy. That being said if it's true that there other Aussie retailers that have confirmed this, than it's possible the news just hasn't got back to him. I hope Disney releases a statement or reverses their decision, cause otherwise thing's are pretty bleak.
Not just Australia - *everyone* around the world. You think this is not a test-balloon for Disney? You think if this goes well they’re not going to eliminate physical prints altogether?
As someone who lives in Australia, really do appreciate Jeff for sparing a thought for us and keeping us informed about news like this. Even if it really isn’t the news we want to hear. Shame on you Disney!
@@beartackle It's the back catalog of stuff Disney now owns, but isn't publishing, that is the problem. I have no interest in much of anything with Disney branding, but the Fox catalog is basically my entire youth. 😅 Up to and including The Simpsons, which may never get physical releases of ongoing seasons (I think the last was season 20... almost 20 years ago).
@@TheBrokenTech So true!! Disney today is complete hogwash!!! Very happy I at least own a bunch of Fox media on Blu-ray, they have put a strangle hold on back media such as the Simpson's you mentioned but as a HUGE MASH fan we will never get even a Blu-ray version of this classic T.V. show. Disney's the worst.
@@TheTonyahawk Sadly, I think Fox was still running the show when The Simpson's home releases died, but you know full well Disney isn't going to bring them back. 😔 On the bright side, I guess we should be happy with what we have manged to get. Alien, Predator 1&2, and Die Hard 1 all made it to 4K disc before Disney gutted Fox. 🤟
As a Canadian (and no I never use Disney Movie Club in my entire life), this is depressing to fellow Aussie physical media collectors who loves to collect Disney movies on blu-ray and recently 4K. Pretty much the reason why Iger is being selfish on everything right now from criticizing SAF-AFTRA strikes to cancelling physical media goodness. We Canadians are in 100% support for Australians.
I've been thinking the same thing. This is all being done by Iger to punish people for their complaints, especially in relation to the upcoming "Snow White" movie.
I'm from Melbourne, Australia and this is disgusting of Disney to do this, as a physical media collector for over 29 years since I was 12/13 yrs old this really frustrates me, thank you for covering it, I really appreciate it, I was wondering because your a RUclipsr with influence can you ask Disney to continue to release physical media formats where I live.
@@dashardlow That's horrible, this really frustrates me as a huge physical media collector, that means I have to purchase my Disney physical media from overseas which is expensive for me with the exchange rates.
@@dashardlow I disagree. It's my opinion that they are stopping because they can push more people onto their streaming service by eliminating all other avenues to view the content. They are simply boiling the frog more slowly in the smaller markets first.
@@TheBrokenTech I agree with your assessment. I, too, don't think it's because there's no physical media money to be made in Australia given what Jeff said in the video.
As an Australian Collector of Physical Media this is a devastating blow. I can't always stream and download movies because of my shoddy internet so my Blu Ray shelf is like a safe haven for watching movies. This feels like a really tone deaf decision and it would be nice if somebody could at least give us a reasonable excuse as to why Disney have decided to do this.
@@MrFister84 Yep. Two ways. Distribution of physical media is costly *and* once you've bought it, they can't sell it to you again. There's some speculation D+ is in for a bumpy ride too.
Australian here. The saddest part about all of this is Disney taking over other companies and now they’re limiting those releases too. The Creator is coming out later this year and looks stunning. After cinemas, the only way for us to watch that will be Disney+ which, of course, won’t be anywhere near as good as a 4K disc. I really thought Disney were turning around for the better after the Avatar releases were such high quality but seems more like that was a last hurrah…
Even where it releases it certainly won't be a great disc, knowing how Disney refuses to do Dolby Vision, proper sound mixes etc. Disney owning anything is inherently bad.
Disney is long past it's creative prime and can no longer innovate, hence why they need to absorb other companies IP's. It's the "empire" phase of the corporate life cycle followed by the inevitable decline (of which many would argue has already started).
It’s horrible but not surprising. Australia is always a testing ground for big companies to do something that is unpopular. Disney wants to go back to its “vault” strategy.
@@zephyrr108The vault strategy isn't about respecting the classics, it's about making them impossible to find for years until the 60th/80th/100th anniversary BS release that they'll try to argue has been modified because of various changes they've made to "correct" errors or insensitivities and keep their copyright on it for another century.
@@kinoirvoidjustice Yes they are buddy, don't believe their dismissive lies that they are not who some see that they are, it's not scapegoat it's the truth.
Even as as someone living in the US, this is really sad for our Australian friends. And for the physical media community as a whole. It was only months ago that Bob Iger said Disney needed to look at physical media as a potential way to earn more revenue. This action cuts strongly against that sentiment. So, I'm doubtful that Disney will change their physical media ways in any other part of the world.
@@erickvoshel1 it will happen in all countries eventually, many people is not aware that physical media is a luxury these days, it died many years ago in most countries due to streaming and digital storefronts, only UK, US, Japan and other first world countries still buy discs
@@erickvoshel1 That Disney will stop selling its movies on physical media here? My hunch is not in the foreseeable future. 🤞 BUT… Disney’s actions are already bad enough: 1)not releasing any original show from D+, and 2) preventing almost every movie it owns (outside of SW & Marvel) from getting a 4k release. That stuff is just as bad to me as its Australia decision.
@@analogblues I agree. That is why I will always favor physical media over streaming. Now, I enjoy streaming too, but I still think there is a place for physical media as well. And I look forward to continuing building my physical media collection for many years to come. Long Live physical media!
This sucks for us in NZ as well. JBHiFi is the only physical movie store we have with very limited content, especially 4k. Shipping costs from UK and USA are prohibitive. Luckily we have decent broadband speeds in the cities for streaming, but I prefer physical media.
As Australia and New Zealand with Rupert Murdock gave more tax payers money from australia since 1930~ to 1966, but that eras disney embago.. left the Austral ~Oceanic film industry under an~ only american movies & tv show policy ,, so to me, nothing has changed, but disney owns 51 % share on our market ,. since 1996 we had Disney owned pizza stores , and disney owns more in australia than Cbs & Paramount ,,..
@@taykitrleevitt4314 I really don't understand Disney's logic. They want to force people onto the platform and at the same time keep pulling content from it.
As a Mexican, where Disney physical media was cancelled in 2020, I gotta say... it really, really sucks. Collections will be incomplete, new releases unobtainable. I am so sorry for Australians, it is a horrible experience...
@@marvindebot3264 Many US discs are made in Mexico. It's absurd that Disney won't officially sell discs to the country that's literally making them. We Brazilians are on the same boat. No physical media for us.
As a physical media collector in the UK this is very sad news and hopefully does not foreshadow what may happen to physical media in the rest of the world in the forseeable future.
@@erickvoshel1 I think eventually sadly most physical media will be eliminated in favour of streaming or other future digital platform. Best case scenario, blu ray and 4k discs will come back from the dead like vinyl and never go away. One can only hope and I hope that physical media stays around for a long time to come yet.
@@rikdekard71Nefarious scheme to gate everything behind multiple services and pay walls. Why am I not surprised ? Back the wrong horse and where does that leave the customer ? They can jump into your account and delist when their licence runs out. Or make politically correct edits and alterations. And for some unholy reason people seem to be fine with this. We have gone backwards
@@rikdekard71 Eh books are still going strong even with audio books, tablets and so on. It wont be eliminated whilst people buy it. DVDs are still being produced
I lived in Australia for 8 years. Since the wifi there sucks, many many people relied on physical media for home entertainment. Even non-collector people had at least 40-50 blurays in their homes. JB-HIFI was always stacked with DVDs, Blurays and 4K. So it's really a shame, because they're pushing people to subscribe to Disney plus, but with the wifi there, it won't be the best quality.
@@nima8s8 the government is going back around and giving most people FTTP at the moment. have been doing it for around a year now. my fibre in lightning fast and I live in the country.
If Disney decides on a blanket discontinuation of physical media, that’s them strong arming you into paying a recurring charge for Disney +. Because, after all, they can’t suck more money out of you if you buy one of their titles on disc,
I think that is pretty much why they are doing this. Since buying a movie on DVD / Blueray is a one time thing for companies, then you have the secondhand market as well. And with how Disney seems to be going lately, and with how badly some of their newer movies are doing at the box office, they would be cutting costs where ever they can. So I am not really surprised that they are doing this, it sucks to be sure and this could backfire on them.
Wtf! Shame on Disney for this! What a weak move! I thought Iger cared about physical media, but I shouldn't be shocked since they don't care about releasing Disney+ titles physically.
Iger cares about $$$$. Physical media was a potential avenue for that. Otherwise he doesn’t care about anything - don’t get confused. He’s a corporate whale like the rest of them.
Iger never said he cared about physical media. He was just talking about home entertainment. He was probably talking about digital sales, which is probably what they're focusing on going forward.
As an Aussie collector, if this is indeed the case I'm pretty shattered, you are 100% correct about the rubbish bandwidth we get down here, streaming is not always a viable option for everyone. Thanks for covering this mate, keep up the excellent work!
Wow. Australia is one of the last big markets for physical because how spotty internet is outside of the cities. If Disney is abandoning that market, it wont be long for everywhere else
@@Trashboat444 I have never seen this to be the case. I live in Australia. Sometimes we'll get a physical release a little earlier than the US but it's only like a week early or something
What are you talking about the internet is all over Australia. PS I live here in OZ in fact the USA has way worse internet in rural areas, otherwise your government would not be paying Elon for Starlink in remote areas.
Australian citizen here and I have a friend who lives in an area without any mobile reception, she has to use landline internet for all their reception needs and I’ve seen her DVD collection, it’s big, she’s clearly been relying on them for years. And now, to potentially see physical media from Disney gone, I’m speaking for all the areas and small towns without mobile reception and saying that movies, TV shows, anything of the sort should be something that can be enjoyed by anyone and physical media was a way for many to experience them. It’s not even affecting those towns like the one my friend lives in, physical collectors like myself are crushed to hear this. I’m a massive Pixar fan and now I might not be able to buy their most recent movies on Blu-Ray because of this. I going to have to pay for Disney+ subscription or get it digitally. I preferably don’t want to do that, especially for Pixar movies. I’ve loved physical media for as long as I can remember.
The irony is that a few months back, Bob Igar talked about ramping up physical releases. This is the opposite. The concern is that doing this in other countries is basically the test ground for eventually doing it in the U.S./Canada and U.K.
@@erickvoshel1 The problem with streaming is that they can pull stuff whenever they want. Looks what's been happening recently with Max, Disney + and Paramount +.
@@lioneljacobs6874 Yes, I know, however, Paramount Plus may be learning its lesson. It announced a DVD & digital release for "Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies." This is in no doubt due to the backlash, but at least it's something.
I prefer physical media. The sound you get from a blu ray far exceeds that of streaming. Also, I remember Disney censoring Splash by covering Madison’s bare behind with cgi on Disney +. They can change or remove things on a whim on streaming. I’ll always choose physical media to streaming.
@@Zachary_Dalethat's an option, but some places charge ridiculous amounts for shipping, especially when they insist on only offering super duper express services rather than standard airmail.
This is a beta test for their worldwide strategy. But it is NOT a move for Disney+. Home media is more profitable than disney+, so some users opting to go physical instead doesn't hurt them. The real reason why this is happening is resisuals. Physical media residuals for actors and writers is still high, much, much, higher than Disney+. By cutting physical media out of their lineup, it's another way for Disney to try and not pay their employees fairly
Thanks Jeff. I’m a from Sydney and have been collecting physical media for over 30+ years. Starting out with Beta tapes, to VHS, Laserdisc, DVD then blu ray and 4K. Also a massive Star Wars nerd. So to think that collectors won’t be able to grow their Star Wars collection when the inevitable new movies come out (short of spending a tonne on imports) is a real shame. Hell, I was looking forward to closing out my Indy collection soon. I hope, like you mentioned, that we may learn more in the future. But for now, I’m heartbroken this decision has been made.
I'm in New Zealand, and ever since Disney shut shop here it has been difficult to source physical media locally. A majority of my purchases in the last year or so have been from Australia. I'm not too concerned about Disney's current slate but not having the Fox catalogue is gonna be a huge disappointment. To source it from US or Europe is gonna be pricey. I'll be spending boutique label money on studio titles which is gonna suck. Hoping for the best!
This is a real shame, Disney have forgotten they used to be the leaders in this field. Ireland is treated horribly for physical media leaving Amazon the only realistic option. These companies wonder why the Amazons of the world take the biggest market share
Thanks Jeff for publicising what's happening to physical media collectors here in Australia! First Disney gave everyone terrible sound mixes with no bass or dynamic range, and now they're cutting off physical media altogether. The only hope is that, given Disney's financial situation, they get bought out by someone who actually cares about giving the fans what they want.
I’m from Melbourne Australia and this is just terrible!What is happening to this world?Ive been a hard physical media for over three decades and this is upsetting
As a worker at JB for many years a title like Indiana Jones and all its versions has been a cornerstone of the business and it's gonna be really sad we don't have the next great release for the collection.
If Disney wants to make it hard for Australians to see their content, it still won't be hard to see their content - they just won't be making profit from it.
Disney as a company is going down the toilet all because of Bob Iger. Only the removal of Bob and the entire board of Disney will remedy their bizarre decisions. If this is actually true, my guess is that "Bob" is doing an experiment in Australia, to see if he can boost/force people to use Disney Minus (+), since that online streaming service is failing worldwide and continuing to make MASSIVE losses. I've been a movie collector all my adult life and regularly buy physical media in Australia from places like JB HiFi. I will be devastated if I can't buy physical media and have to buy more movies at a more expensive cost from overseas suppliers. If it were only Disney movies I could live with that, but if it includes 20th Century Fox titles, that is disgusting!!! They really don't like making money, which is totally bizarre. I wonder what James Cameron has to say about all this???!!!
While I do not think that physical media will go extinct, I am increasingly concerned that companies like Disney that own the 20th Century Fox, Touchstone, etc libraries are possibly going to not license their libraries to boutique labels just due to their lack of respect for the rich history of film and going all in on streaming, and actively try to hurt physical media. Does anyone know if they've been doing business with the boutique labels as of late? Has it decreased in the last year? I think this could be a legit issue in the future with their retro libraries. I hope I'm wrong, but Bob Iger clearly has zero respect for film and especially film history.
It's definitely a worry how up in the air this all is right now but the glass-is-half-full side of me thinks the more Disney rejects physical media the more potential there is for the boutique scene to pick up the pieces. There's a lot of room for more mainstream studio catalogue material in the boutique market and perhaps Disney just needs someone who actually cares to do the work for them? Imagine the Touchstone catalogue being given the proper 4k treatment. Fingers crossed this is where it's heading.
Genuinely appreciate your commentary and understanding. Disney on the other hand are a bunch of scumbags. In Autralia we'd call this 'Un-Australian'. So furious at this decision by them.
Remember, Disney owns most cinematic content now. Piracy and not subscription is the answer. Disney wants viewers to fork out for permanent subscriptions to access their content. Ethically, if you were prepared to pay for ownership of physical media, yet that has been denied in favour of Great Reset “you will own nothing” lease agreements with notions such as Disney +, then consumers would be wise to boycott. Piracy isn’t unethical if you would have paid if a reasonable option were made available.
This comment reminds me of the Russian tax system that I learned about in Uni. There are more taxes because people cheat, and people cheat because if they truly paid all their taxes there would be nothing left. Don't know what it's like 20 years later.
As an Australian physical media collector, waking up to this today, I quickly went online and tried to fill some of the holes still in my collection. JB is culling its Disney stock already. It's truly disappointing for fans of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Fox, Touchstone, Buena Vista. Rough day for me.
I’m from NZ, and I quickly ordered The Last Duel, West Side Story, and the King’s Man because they hadn’t been released in New Zealand, as well as some of their animated films too. Truly sad that a lot of these films will be much harder to find.
@@HunterJ1999I hear you, mate. I was just walking the aisles of my local JB and just seeing everything that will no longer be available. All the things a young person might wander in, pick up on a whim and it become their favourite thing. Avatar, Alien, Predator, Die Hard, Commando, Hocus Pocus, The Mighty Ducks, Home Alone, Firefly, The X-Files, The Simpson's, Terminator 2, Tron, Raiders of the Lost Ark - I could go on and on. Anyway, I don't think I'll ever subscribe to Disney+ again. I'm done with that now. I'll always have my movie collection to loyally be there and not be removed to save on royalty payments.
I really hope Disney hurts in the most painful way possible because of this in the long run. They are just becoming more and more of an embarrassment each and every day. It would be awesome if they license all thier project to companies that actually cares about physical media. I'm already at that point. Who needs them?
@@connorpusey5912 They in fact are. Add to the fact that Samsung discontinued making Blu Ray players back in 2019. Also, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy (which has already discontinued CDs) have all scaled back their disc areas. Also from Forbes : “In 2022, DVD and Blu-ray sales in the U.S. were an estimated $1.58 billion, a decline of nearly 20% from $1.97 billion in 2021. In addition, disc rentals had declined from $602.7 million in 2021 to $502.4 million last year.”
I still feel like physical media will be around for a long time because people are starting to realize the value of physical over streaming and digital
This is why I will continue to buy bootlegs of things I want, when no official release exists. And Disney nowadays is a complete joke. They are running the company into the ground.
This whole crusade against physical media in recent times has been so disturbing. Just recently Sony actually withdrew out of germany as a publisher but thankfully another smaller publisher is gonna take over for them and will release future Sony properties here. Still, this whole trend of leaving behind physical media is giving me headaches and I don't know why you can't just have both digital and physical to choose from. It's always better for the customer to have options.
I live in Australia and this kinda sucks as I'm just starting to build my 4K physical collection. It's even a struggle to order discs online as most discs are still region locked and won't play on most players here.
Thanks for your kind words. I’m in Australia and a physical media collector. I have no intention of streaming my movies. So ordering from overseas will be our only option. Thanks Disney. I cannot believe they’re doing this! Talk about cutting out your profits!
I've been collecting tons of Disney/Fox titles on DVD for many years since I was little and seeing the news like this while waking up in the morning is not the best day ever. As a physical media lover born in Australia, I will say that I am very disappointed about Disney's decision not to move forward with physical media and its heartbreaking to a lot of us. 💔😪
It might not seem like much but to collectors that means no more DVD, Blu Ray, 4k, anniversary releases, directors cuts, limited editions, special editions, extended editions, first season, last season, complete series, box sets of anything owned by Disney. And yeah I have heard words that Paramount and Sony will also be stopping all physical media in Australia by the end of the year. Universal has already stopped selling Dr. Who over here. And this is hitting Australia and New Zealand now but how long before they stop it in the usa? Physical media sales are a fraction of what they used to be. And I think streaming is more profitable by comparison. I don't like streaming but the companies like making money and that seems to be part of the reason they are stopping physical media. If there is no physical media then it forces people to join the streaming sites.
Since Criterion released Wall-E, I have been wondering if perhaps Disney is testing the waters with pulling out of physical media, but perhaps they will start using third parties like Criterion to release movies in some capacity.
I'II be very candid about home media in Australia - it's doing nowhere near as well as you imply here. Almost no one I know buys physical, the physical "collectors" online are a very, very small bubble. One of our largest physical retailers, Sanity, just closed all of their brick and mortar stores (they were in the game decades before JB Hi Fi). JB, actually, have been shrinking their physical media sections for the last few years. They've, in fact, entirely removed physical media from most of their "free-standing" stores. Basically, you can only get physical in JB mall stores (I think rural mall stores still have physical sections, though). Whenever I go into JB, no one is even in physical (it used to be packed 5 years ago). Kicks (the official online storefront of Uni/Sony) closed down recently too. In fact, only a few months back, reports surfaced that Uni / Sony was considering pulling out of physical here entirely. Retailers are constantly having physical "clearance" sales. Disney, in fact, is a regular participant in "clearances"... you've been able to pick up 4K discs as low as $8 in recent sales. Our three major 'super stores* - K-Mart, Target, Big W stopped selling physical media 2-3 years ago. Occasionally you'll find a DVD or two. The only reason so many of our local labels are even doing these lavish special editions is because it's the only way they can stay in business. They've all had to entirely flip their business models over the last 1-2 years. As far as I'm aware, a GOOD % of their sales are from international buyers, and that's who these releases are geared at. Case in point: two great local labels - Shock and Beyond - went out of business in the last 12 months. I spoke to Disney 3 years ago, and even then they told me they were "reassessing" physical. This isn't a surprise to me in the slightest. It sucks, but it makes sense.
Nice to get some input from someone who's actually in Australia. Being from Calgary Canada physical media is not doing bad here. Every store here was sold out of Evil Dead Rise in 4K on release day causing me to order it from Amazon. As for the Disney Movie club I never used it and no one I know did or cared about it. As the service was so expensive. They charged more for a movie with shipping then Bestbuy, Walmart or any other store. You were also required to buy a certain amount of films to keep it. So you would end up buying over priced movies you may never watch or really want for a single specific tittle.
Not surprising, I live in Los Angeles and the retailers are slowly doing that here as well. Target and Wal-mart have pathetic selections, stalwarts such as Best Buy are on the edge of discontinuing physical media if not shutting down completely, we lost Fry's recently, K-mart is defunct (not that they ever had a good selection) and the record stores such as Tower, The Wharehouse, Music+ and Sam Goody are memories of the distant past. Small boutiques such as the CD Trader in Tarzana, Ca are far a few in between but I have gotten some golden finds there. Now sadly it's Amazon that I get most of my 4K releases from, I have dipped into Arrow and Vinegar Syndrome from time to time but Amazon's the most lucrative now.
@@TheTonyahawkYeah I noticed that at Target and Walmart. My grandparents live in Florida and my auntie owns a house in phoniex. I was in Florida in March and December being very surprised at how small Targets selection has gotten compared to what it once was as I go to Florida once a year or more to visit.
Well that’s disappointing. So maybe it’s not good business. But the accessibility is going to become an issue for people and that definitely sucks. You are right though - a lot of the Aussie label sales go to foreign collectors.
I don't honestly think it's all that much different in the US. I subscribe to a rental-by-mail service that only does 4K discs and it appears that every week they process about 400 orders... in a country of over 330 million people. Granted, there are a handful of companies in that business here, but I doubt any of them are doing tens of thousands of discs every week. That said... There are enough of you southerners in the comments here that someone down under may be able to make a go of importing discs and starting your own rental service. I couldn't even begin to imagine the legal side of that there, but... if Disney doesn't want that market, let them come find you? 🤷♂
As a physical media collector I will speak on behalf of all of us in Australia: Very disappointing. Disney, you want us all on board but now it’s really going to be Streaming under duress. Shame Disney shame.
this is absolutely ridiculous!! as an Australian collector who just started collecting i find this as something that will affect me a lot. if this goes through, the only thing i would want is to be able to buy more Spider-Man movies
We can still get the new Spiderman releases because it's owned by Sony. Spiderman Across The Spiderverse will be out on dvd, bluray and 4k September 13.
I live in Melbourne Australia, I love to actually own the things I buy and enjoy them without depending on the internet. There's no question that Disney is doing this due to losing money from their garbage movies they've been putting out, and their streaming service is loosing billions of dollars, and lots of subscribers, so now they're forcing people to use it. I have used Disney plus, but not much and this sure isn't going to make me use it again, more like pirate their stuff I want from now on. Wait till they cry that piracy is more popular because no one want all these streaming services
I’m an Australian and this is so sad and disheartening. I collect physical media especially if I love the movie. I understand Disney plus is great and convenient but I’ve still bought marvel’s latest releases on 4K even the steelbooks. Hell they still provide DVDs here in Australia for all new releases a format 27 years old. It’s going to be sad seeing the Disney section in JB go on discount and disappear as they widdle down the stock they have left. Sad and unfortunate. Hope this won’t start a trend from other companies.
Disney’s not going anywhere. You sound like the woke go broke tryhards..instead let’s say something like the way Disney’s contents been going we might not miss them lol. But let’s be clear that the giant that is Disney making any steps away from physical is a bad thing until digital can equal the quality
Last i checked DVD has very fast and flexible production with over twenty years to figure out how to optimize their production. When Disney says there isn't a business case, don't think they need to set up a special factory/ pipeline to print any particular movie, it's literally just giving the DVD mastering company the master and stating how many copies you want, and a week or two later, your order has been printed and in the retailer.
Older physical media should be kept and saved...films old and new are now being cut for reasons of "sensitivity". The writers who inspired many productions i.e. Iain Fleming...are also under the butcher's knife. This goes further than just a change of delivering content. This is the first step on the way to enforcing censorship. And could the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs be "taken out of circulation" due to its content now deemed as harmful?
I’m an Australian and have been collecting the Marvel Steelbooks every release day. JB hi fi is the only distributor that sells them instore here and they are already $40-$50 AUD each. It’s gonna be an expensive endeavour to keep the collection going now…
Good thing anything Disney the last 15 years hasn't been worth owning. Also, I called this shit. If Disney has their way, they'd make it so you can't even own any of their stuff, just lock you into Disney+ permanently.
Physical media should be kept. The only reason they want to get rid of it is so they can keep ripping money out of the public. Why let you pay once and have it forever when they can charge you on a monthly basis for streaming. To hell with streaming, keep the discs.
At this point I'm in the camp of being done with Disney.... problem is 20th Century Fox catalog. I love Star Wars, just not the new Star Wars, and no way anyone is getting the recent shows on physical media.
It's become very difficult for me to support Disney, too, with their attitude towards physical media and trying to force people to only watch their series content on Disney +. I've proudly not subscribed to Disney+ for many months now.
As I've said in another video, I'm not one to advocate for pirating DVD or Blu-Ray, but it sounds like the Aussies are gonna be introducing themselves to Blu-Ray burners and Blu-Ray blanks as well as Pirate Bay (or similar) for Disney/20th Century Fox stuff. Or at least eBay and Etsy where some sellers have them already available. And will more than likely continue to have them available.
Even though I disliked a lot of MCU phase 4, i really wanted to have Wandavision & Loki on physical. Disney not releasing physical Disney+ for the collection is so annoying 😒.
It won't. Streaming is simply not a substitute for physical media. Someone who cares enough about quality and preservation to buy physical media is not suddenly gonna pay for streaming. If they won't sell proper digital copies they can't possibly make anybody switch from buying 4k discs especially. I don't understand why they refuse to sell films like that.
Not sure what Disney is doing by cancelling physical media in Asia and now Australia. As a member of the Disney Movie Club in Canada, it will be impossible to eventually get some of these older Wonderful World of Disney shows and classic films (especially live action) on disc as do not see them offering them for sale at retailers. I did notice a Wal-Mart that gets a bit more media have 2 large shelves with all Disney titles which looked like they were from the movie club - so I wonder if they are liquidating some of these club titles to retailers. I am planning on making a few orders to grab some titles (last order date is Sept 25) which I now regret never picking up that are club exclusives - many of them not even in Disney+. I wonder if they are doing this to force fans to buy a their streaming service to watch their catalogue since it is not growing (and declining in some cases). I could see them cutting back on not releasing DVD copies and just focus on Blu-ray but scrapping all of it makes no sense unless nobody really is buying discs. Disney mentioned in their email that it was closing the club because of lack of orders and declining membership - which I am sure is true but when was the last time you saw them even advertise this service?! Most probably have no idea it even exists. Ridiculous to cry about nobody buying your product and yet you never advertise to sell it.
This doesn't bode well for my ever diminishing hope that Disney will some day take the chains off of the various Fox releases I'd really like to see on 4K disc. I think the best we can hope for at this point is for D+ to continue to lose money to the point that they come to their senses.
I’m a physical media collector from New Zealand, and sadly the writing was on the wall. A lot of Disney products such as the Marvel films, West Side Story, The Last Duel weren’t released here for a long time, if at all, and I would have to order from Australia to get them. They eventually released Shang-Chi and Eternals after a while, presumably by demand, so hopefully this changes as well, but this is a pretty big blow, especially as I wanted Dial of Destiny to close out my Indiana Jones collection.
As an Australian this was certainly not the news I wanted to wake to this morning. It doesn't surprise me. We're a smaller market, inconsequential some might say, often among the first to be effected by changes such as this. Be it price hikes, changes to product availability, or test roll-outs of services that may not be ready for mass global release, our market can be a test bed for data gathering. Importing is an option of course, but it's an expensive one also seeing impactful changes. Recently a trusted importer of dvd/blurays, Zavvi, stopped all distribution to Australia too. Physical media is certainly being strangled.
@@erickvoshel1 It's possible that it becomes a niche product, same as what happened with albums (vinyls, CDs, cassettes). It will probably be run by boutique studios. I just hope it doesn't disappear, because we have been getting some really good quality physical media and some very unexpected releases that I've been very happy about.
My prediction is it will be gone in 10 to 20 years, preserved only by those with the foresight and forward thinking to not "just throw them out" when streaming became the norm.
Hey Jeff, thanks so much for covering us here in Australia. Love your work mate. Yeah, thanks for mentioning JB HiFi , a buy a lot of my physical media from My local JB HiFi local stores. If there is a silver lining to this, Disney is in such a financial pickle, they will have to sell off their product lines.
@patrickmcwilliams7609 Australia sells its physical media internationally as some titles have only been released here. Also some out of distribution titles are still available in Australia
as an aussie myself, i don't think it's just us. i find the timing suspect that disney did this during the strike that is specifically about how royalties from streaming is garbage. royalties from physical media is easy to track and gives good royalties and as that anonymous executive said "the endgame is to drag it out until they start losing their houses." i genuinely think this is an act of aggression.
I agree - if you remember Ultraviolet - if you did not transfer over to Google play you lost everything- but then not everything transferred due to licensing
If Disney seriously thinks they could force me to get a D+ subscription with this action they are utterly wrong. this will 100% push me towards torrents.
This is a bad move by Disney. At least this is only Disney, apparently, stopping their releases of physical media. I have hundreds of movies & TV shows, but not even one is from Disney. I'm in Australia and I've always refused to use any paid streaming service. The way our internet works, if someone up-stream is streaming a movie, it slows down the internet for everyone down-stream. At peak times, such as christmas and new year, there are loads of people streaming movies. That makes my internet slower. One of the biggest reasons why I refuse to use paid streaming services has always been the same reason why there's currently an actors and writers strike. I've known for years that only the big name actors and movie executives get any money from streaming services. (A movie director mentioned it.) I've been telling everyone for years, too, but most people completely dismissed what I told them. Perhaps now they'll listen.
This is all about corporate greed and control. Disney figures they can make more money off streaming by forcing people to rebuy their movies each time they want to watch them.
So frustrating, because of how far we are from the rest of the world shipping is so expensive, so to import nearly doubled the cost of buying and importing a Blu ray 😭
It’s immensely cathartic to watch Disney slowly self implode. Imagine having the biggest money making franchises in the world and be losing millions because they continue to churn out crap. And refuse to pay writers and actors their worth, which has the entire industry at a stand still. The sooner these selfish corporate suits are out of the industry the sooner we can get back to watching great cinema. I just hope my Aussie indie labels are able to benefit by filling the void in the market Disney is throwing away.
Hang on there... It's the writers and actors that churned out that crap. 🤷♂ It's true that rot starts at the core, but this apple has been fermenting on the ground for a long, long, time. Everyone from the boardroom to the writer's room needs to go.
I visited friends in Oz in 2010 and they were merrily streaming (illegally) movies because legal streaming and physical media was just not available. So this is a years old problem.
Every time a new article comes out about the Disney company, it becomes more and more clear that they are completely out of touch with their audience. They have no idea what the fuck they're doing, and I genuinely look forward to the day they go out of business.
You are exactly right. The studios have no idea what they are doing & coupled with the fact that the actors & writers are striking because of the poor treatment they are receiving at the studio's hands. Plus, adding insult to injury, Disney announced that "Wanda Vision was getting a physical release, but no disc & it's already making Marvel Fans more than upset. Talk about getting your customer's hopes up & then dashing them to pieces.
Perhaps this is just a conspiracy theory, but I suspect Disney is intentionally doing this to try and get more Disney+ subscribers, especially because subscriptions have been plummeting recently.
As an Australian I am sad, and disappointed! Whilst the market here for physical media is small, its still got a following, and a lot of families don't subscribe to Disney+, and like you say, we have big labels based here with a big collectors market! The fact that Sanity (smaller footprint than JB) of all places broke this news is really odd!!
Disney is a disgrace. “Celebrate 100 years of Disney with our decision to completely exclude your entire geographic region from the opportunity of ownership”. I’ll be cancelling my Disney+ subscription. My guess is this will not drive people to Disney+. Instead, it’ll drive people to piracy, in spite. It’s like going back to the 80s and 90s where we were isolated from Disney VHS ownership as well.
Join me on Whatnot so you catch my live streams, and get a $15 FREE credit: whatnot.com/invite/filmsathome
Do you think this will also happen in the US?
There's basically only one major retailer for physical media, JB hifi here in Australia.
The other major retailers all dropped media.
When Disney plus happened it hurt sales a lot. I worked in retail and saw less Disney getting sold. Now that retailer has dropped media all together, only JB hifi left and online only retailers.
It's a Shame because media in general were selling good. Even low budget movie new releases sold well. They just abandoned a good thing.
This is a shame it is the way I buy Disney’s movies. Sad for Australia this is not accessible Disney products. I don’t live in Australia but will not do Disney+.
I think that the licensing deal is what they are trying to achieve, especially with Australia since the discs are generally European discs and they are imported there afterwards and repackaged in some sort of way.
I think they want to license to someone and have them print the discs there, which is cheaper than printing overseas and import them. Would probably take the price down.
It could be that or they are just ending all existing physical endeavors because, again, Iger said they want to push physical again back in march, and they might need to rework their modus operandi if they want to achieve that, and yeah it might be easier to kill everything existing and relaunch.
this all because of Hemsworth saying he will not be Thor unless he has a good script...
My advice to Australians is cancel your Disney plus subscriptions. They want to try and push that over physical media.
My thoughts exactly!
@@markwilson1192 My thoughts exactly. We should fight to preserve physical media. Physical media can co-exist with streaming.
Cancel Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+
I agree 100%
People of course will blame it on consumers.
What a miserable company Disney has become.
You know what you need to do. Boycott the brand, and pirate whatever you don’t have the will to.
@@Y2Kr4SHM4N gonna be the future at the rate they are going!
@@Y2Kr4SHM4N Yep thats what im doing
@@chiefmegadeth I applaud you both!
Don’t pirate stuff. If you don’t wanna contribute money to the company, don’t consume their product.
Australia should just rescind Disney's copyright protection and place everything Disney in the public domain. If Disney won't support Australia, then Australia shouldn't protect Disney. .
Well said! I hope they do.
@@Mlock76 I'm with you guys.
Very well said
They kinda cant as its literally Intellectual property and copyright laws exist also Australia is a American Corporation
@@ComradePoop Huh?
As an Australian physical media collector I can tell you that postage is hugely expensive, and if its not, it takes weeks and weeks for simple DVD or CD to get to use here. This is such devastating news, but sadly, the first of many dominos to fall in this country in relation to physical media
Postage is expensive but it’s mitigated a fair bit by our high wages. The average Australian has literally twice the annual income of his American counterpart, though of course, he pays more for everything.
@@ddc2957you point is chicken shit! Pay being twice is less then nothing when everything is 2 to 4 times the price of the the US.
@@fbboringstuff It evens out for us, I'd still rather live in Aus than the US, our standard of living is still higher despite paying more for everything (because we import almost everything).
Disney are destroying IPs and now discontinuing physical media. Just when I think they can't do more damage to themselves and our favourite film franchises...
You will own nothing, and be happy!
They went full woke a while ago. Also tried to suppress Sound of Freedom. Sketchy a$$ company
It’s horrible that they bought out 20th Century Fox etc as all the quality content on Disney plus comes from… well anything but Disney (at least anything they’ve done recently).
As an Australian DVD/Blu-Ray collector, I literally cried when I heard the news. I've been a life long Disney fan, and I've been a DVD collector since I was 12 years old. Fortunately I have MOST of the classic Disney and Pixar animated films in my collection. I talked with a local DVD specialty shop I go to, and he said he hasn't heard anything about it (…yet), and considering Sanity deleted their tweet, he speculates it MAY just be Sanity using fear mongering tactics to drive up their sales (i.e. this is all the last Disney DVD and Blu-Rays they have in stock), because otherwise he said it would be REALLY STUPID on their part since not everyone in Australia can afford Disney Plus, and getting rid of physical media down here would only drive up piracy. That being said if it's true that there other Aussie retailers that have confirmed this, than it's possible the news just hasn't got back to him. I hope Disney releases a statement or reverses their decision, cause otherwise thing's are pretty bleak.
@urbanyouths You're a bell-end.
@urbanyouthsDo we classify movies as art or as “consumer products”..? 🤔
That’s not a rhetorical question, I’m curious as to the answer.
@@taffysaur Calling modern Hollywood machine stuff "art" is a stretch.
We in Australia should boycott Disney theatrical and boycott Disney+
I'm Australian and just cancelled my Disney+ subscription.
Not just Australia - *everyone* around the world. You think this is not a test-balloon for Disney? You think if this goes well they’re not going to eliminate physical prints altogether?
Gotta get rid of the Apathy we are renowned for first, good luck with that.
I have been boycotting them for years. No one wants to listen, especially if they think it might exclude them from the “water cooler” discussions.
Agreed, and already have since 2021
As someone who lives in Australia, really do appreciate Jeff for sparing a thought for us and keeping us informed about news like this. Even if it really isn’t the news we want to hear. Shame on you Disney!
Disney is an embarrassment nowadays
I agree. I have so many Disney classics, but haven't been interested in their latest releases.
Hi bigots!
@@beartackle It's the back catalog of stuff Disney now owns, but isn't publishing, that is the problem. I have no interest in much of anything with Disney branding, but the Fox catalog is basically my entire youth. 😅 Up to and including The Simpsons, which may never get physical releases of ongoing seasons (I think the last was season 20... almost 20 years ago).
@@TheBrokenTech So true!! Disney today is complete hogwash!!! Very happy I at least own a bunch of Fox media on Blu-ray, they have put a strangle hold on back media such as the Simpson's you mentioned but as a HUGE MASH fan we will never get even a Blu-ray version of this classic T.V. show. Disney's the worst.
@@TheTonyahawk Sadly, I think Fox was still running the show when The Simpson's home releases died, but you know full well Disney isn't going to bring them back. 😔
On the bright side, I guess we should be happy with what we have manged to get. Alien, Predator 1&2, and Die Hard 1 all made it to 4K disc before Disney gutted Fox. 🤟
As a Canadian (and no I never use Disney Movie Club in my entire life), this is depressing to fellow Aussie physical media collectors who loves to collect Disney movies on blu-ray and recently 4K. Pretty much the reason why Iger is being selfish on everything right now from criticizing SAF-AFTRA strikes to cancelling physical media goodness. We Canadians are in 100% support for Australians.
I've been thinking the same thing. This is all being done by Iger to punish people for their complaints, especially in relation to the upcoming "Snow White" movie.
I'm from Melbourne, Australia and this is disgusting of Disney to do this, as a physical media collector for over 29 years since I was 12/13 yrs old this really frustrates me, thank you for covering it, I really appreciate it, I was wondering because your a RUclipsr with influence can you ask Disney to continue to release physical media formats where I live.
They are stopping because they are not selling enough product. It's that simple
@@dashardlow That's horrible, this really frustrates me as a huge physical media collector, that means I have to purchase my Disney physical media from overseas which is expensive for me with the exchange rates.
@@dashardlow I disagree. It's my opinion that they are stopping because they can push more people onto their streaming service by eliminating all other avenues to view the content. They are simply boiling the frog more slowly in the smaller markets first.
@@TheBrokenTech I agree with your assessment. I, too, don't think it's because there's no physical media money to be made in Australia given what Jeff said in the video.
Agreed Time to get an unlocked Bluray player and buy physical as close to your preference as you can
As an Australian Collector of Physical Media this is a devastating blow. I can't always stream and download movies because of my shoddy internet so my Blu Ray shelf is like a safe haven for watching movies. This feels like a really tone deaf decision and it would be nice if somebody could at least give us a reasonable excuse as to why Disney have decided to do this.
do u have the NBN?
Money I guess, though I suspect they're nickle and diming.
@@MrBibi86 nope, not yet anyway.
@@MrFister84 Yep. Two ways. Distribution of physical media is costly *and* once you've bought it, they can't sell it to you again. There's some speculation D+ is in for a bumpy ride too.
Content control
Australian here. The saddest part about all of this is Disney taking over other companies and now they’re limiting those releases too. The Creator is coming out later this year and looks stunning. After cinemas, the only way for us to watch that will be Disney+ which, of course, won’t be anywhere near as good as a 4K disc. I really thought Disney were turning around for the better after the Avatar releases were such high quality but seems more like that was a last hurrah…
Even where it releases it certainly won't be a great disc, knowing how Disney refuses to do Dolby Vision, proper sound mixes etc. Disney owning anything is inherently bad.
I'm a bonues features whore and that's lacking on Disney+
Thankful 4K is region free, I just hope some places will still get decent enough discs
Disney is long past it's creative prime and can no longer innovate, hence why they need to absorb other companies IP's. It's the "empire" phase of the corporate life cycle followed by the inevitable decline (of which many would argue has already started).
just download it then
It’s horrible but not surprising. Australia is always a testing ground for big companies to do something that is unpopular. Disney wants to go back to its “vault” strategy.
tbh it should. it should respect more its old content....
@@zephyrr108The vault strategy isn't about respecting the classics, it's about making them impossible to find for years until the 60th/80th/100th anniversary BS release that they'll try to argue has been modified because of various changes they've made to "correct" errors or insensitivities and keep their copyright on it for another century.
Disney will never be the way it was. Every year it gets worse and worse.
it became "The evil house of mouse"
@@scotttildits not that deep
@@kinoirvoidjustice Oh it is, Blackrock owns them and they are with them.
@@johnboko7110 blackrock sure, theres things to scapegoat about blackrock but the wef is not some kind of evil mega billionaire world government
@@kinoirvoidjustice Yes they are buddy, don't believe their dismissive lies that they are not who some see that they are, it's not scapegoat it's the truth.
I guess something we can all do here in Australia is cancel Disney+ subscriptions if you have it…
Even as as someone living in the US, this is really sad for our Australian friends. And for the physical media community as a whole. It was only months ago that Bob Iger said Disney needed to look at physical media as a potential way to earn more revenue. This action cuts strongly against that sentiment. So, I'm doubtful that Disney will change their physical media ways in any other part of the world.
Do you think this will happen in the US as well?
@@erickvoshel1 it will happen in all countries eventually, many people is not aware that physical media is a luxury these days, it died many years ago in most countries due to streaming and digital storefronts, only UK, US, Japan and other first world countries still buy discs
@@erickvoshel1 That Disney will stop selling its movies on physical media here? My hunch is not in the foreseeable future. 🤞
BUT… Disney’s actions are already bad enough: 1)not releasing any original show from D+, and 2) preventing almost every movie it owns (outside of SW & Marvel) from getting a 4k release. That stuff is just as bad to me as its Australia decision.
@@analogblues I agree. That is why I will always favor physical media over streaming. Now, I enjoy streaming too, but I still think there is a place for physical media as well. And I look forward to continuing building my physical media collection for many years to come. Long Live physical media!
@@analogblues Regarding it's Australian decision. Disney is only going to hurt its brand & encourage piracy & bootlegging.
This sucks for us in NZ as well. JBHiFi is the only physical movie store we have with very limited content, especially 4k. Shipping costs from UK and USA are prohibitive. Luckily we have decent broadband speeds in the cities for streaming, but I prefer physical media.
That's what they want you to do buy the digital copy .
As Australia and New Zealand with Rupert Murdock gave more tax payers money from australia since 1930~ to 1966, but that eras disney embago.. left the Austral ~Oceanic film industry under an~ only american movies & tv show policy ,, so to me, nothing has changed, but disney owns 51 % share on our market ,. since 1996 we had Disney owned pizza stores , and disney owns more in australia than Cbs & Paramount ,,..
F** Disney!! I pray this doesnt happen in the US. We need to keep physical media alive folks!!!
Same way I hope it doesn't
We’re trying :D
They're forcing people subscribe to Disney+...inevitable, really.
@@taykitrleevitt4314 I really don't understand Disney's logic. They want to force people onto the platform and at the same time keep pulling content from it.
The writings on the wall unfortunately, this is the beginning of the end.
As a Mexican, where Disney physical media was cancelled in 2020, I gotta say... it really, really sucks. Collections will be incomplete, new releases unobtainable. I am so sorry for Australians, it is a horrible experience...
At least for you guys shipping from the US is reasonably cheap, for most Aussies who don't have access to a cheap method it's 25USD to ship a disk.
@@marvindebot3264 Many US discs are made in Mexico. It's absurd that Disney won't officially sell discs to the country that's literally making them. We Brazilians are on the same boat. No physical media for us.
I'm not from Australia, but this still pissed me off.
You should be.
As a physical media collector in the UK this is very sad news and hopefully does not foreshadow what may happen to physical media in the rest of the world in the forseeable future.
What do you think will happen?
@@erickvoshel1 I think eventually sadly most physical media will be eliminated in favour of streaming or other future digital platform. Best case scenario, blu ray and 4k discs will come back from the dead like vinyl and never go away. One can only hope and I hope that physical media stays around for a long time to come yet.
@@rikdekard71Nefarious scheme to gate everything behind multiple services and pay walls. Why am I not surprised ? Back the wrong horse and where does that leave the customer ? They can jump into your account and delist when their licence runs out. Or make politically correct edits and alterations. And for some unholy reason people seem to be fine with this. We have gone backwards
@@rikdekard71 Eh books are still going strong even with audio books, tablets and so on. It wont be eliminated whilst people buy it. DVDs are still being produced
I lived in Australia for 8 years. Since the wifi there sucks, many many people relied on physical media for home entertainment. Even non-collector people had at least 40-50 blurays in their homes. JB-HIFI was always stacked with DVDs, Blurays and 4K. So it's really a shame, because they're pushing people to subscribe to Disney plus, but with the wifi there, it won't be the best quality.
when did you live here? because we have fibre now
@@MrBibi86 I left in 2019. It was normal for me to see buffering and quality drops when watching movies on Netflix and Stan...
@@nima8s8 the government is going back around and giving most people FTTP at the moment. have been doing it for around a year now. my fibre in lightning fast and I live in the country.
@@nima8s8 and a lot of the times quality drops have nothing to do with the ISP but the actual streaming service.
@@MrBibi86 SOME people have fibre, plenty of us live outside any coverage areas and have to put up with sub par LTE (inc NBN) and satellite services
If Disney decides on a blanket discontinuation of physical media, that’s them strong arming you into paying a recurring charge for Disney +. Because, after all, they can’t suck more money out of you if you buy one of their titles on disc,
I think that is pretty much why they are doing this. Since buying a movie on DVD / Blueray is a one time thing for companies, then you have the secondhand market as well.
And with how Disney seems to be going lately, and with how badly some of their newer movies are doing at the box office, they would be cutting costs where ever they can. So I am not really surprised that they are doing this, it sucks to be sure and this could backfire on them.
Also it allows them to cut and change movies at anytime based on woke backlash..
With real media they can't cut things..
Wtf! Shame on Disney for this! What a weak move! I thought Iger cared about physical media, but I shouldn't be shocked since they don't care about releasing Disney+ titles physically.
Iger cares about $$$$. Physical media was a potential avenue for that. Otherwise he doesn’t care about anything - don’t get confused. He’s a corporate whale like the rest of them.
@@JeffRauseoI friggin’ _hate_ Iger!
@@JeffRauseo so damn true !
Iger never said he cared about physical media. He was just talking about home entertainment.
He was probably talking about digital sales, which is probably what they're focusing on going forward.
They never cared about the customers. It's always what they want to do.
As an Aussie collector, if this is indeed the case I'm pretty shattered, you are 100% correct about the rubbish bandwidth we get down here, streaming is not always a viable option for everyone. Thanks for covering this mate, keep up the excellent work!
Wow. Australia is one of the last big markets for physical because how spotty internet is outside of the cities. If Disney is abandoning that market, it wont be long for everywhere else
The population of those living outside of the cities is quite small
@@wausjackbauer128 but its still a large enough market that many movies and tv shows have australian releases but no american release
@@Trashboat444 I have never seen this to be the case.
I live in Australia. Sometimes we'll get a physical release a little earlier than the US but it's only like a week early or something
@@wausjackbauer128 a lot of CN shows have only ever gotten complete series releases in Australia, Regular Show being one of the most notable ones
What are you talking about the internet is all over Australia. PS I live here in OZ in fact the USA has way worse internet in rural areas, otherwise your government would not be paying Elon for Starlink in remote areas.
Australian citizen here and I have a friend who lives in an area without any mobile reception, she has to use landline internet for all their reception needs and I’ve seen her DVD collection, it’s big, she’s clearly been relying on them for years. And now, to potentially see physical media from Disney gone, I’m speaking for all the areas and small towns without mobile reception and saying that movies, TV shows, anything of the sort should be something that can be enjoyed by anyone and physical media was a way for many to experience them. It’s not even affecting those towns like the one my friend lives in, physical collectors like myself are crushed to hear this. I’m a massive Pixar fan and now I might not be able to buy their most recent movies on Blu-Ray because of this. I going to have to pay for Disney+ subscription or get it digitally. I preferably don’t want to do that, especially for Pixar movies. I’ve loved physical media for as long as I can remember.
The irony is that a few months back, Bob Igar talked about ramping up physical releases. This is the opposite. The concern is that doing this in other countries is basically the test ground for eventually doing it in the U.S./Canada and U.K.
I'm also concerned about them doing it in the US. Not all of us can afford streaming. What do you think will happen?
@@erickvoshel1 The problem with streaming is that they can pull stuff whenever they want. Looks what's been happening recently with Max, Disney + and Paramount +.
@@lioneljacobs6874 Yes, I know, however, Paramount Plus may be learning its lesson. It announced a DVD & digital release for "Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies." This is in no doubt due to the backlash, but at least it's something.
I’m guessing this is to eventually extend to Uk US and Canada
They're obviously going to get rid of it globally, might just be in ten years time, but it will happen.
I prefer physical media. The sound you get from a blu ray far exceeds that of streaming. Also, I remember Disney censoring Splash by covering Madison’s bare behind with cgi on Disney +. They can change or remove things on a whim on streaming. I’ll always choose physical media to streaming.
Or when they use cgi to change guns into radios in E.T.
Disney also removes films from Disney+ so if there's no physical disc option there may be no option to own.
I-Tunes.
Just import. 4k is region free.
@@Zachary_Dalethat's an option, but some places charge ridiculous amounts for shipping, especially when they insist on only offering super duper express services rather than standard airmail.
just Pirate
@@hoof31you wouldnt download a car..
This is a beta test for their worldwide strategy. But it is NOT a move for Disney+. Home media is more profitable than disney+, so some users opting to go physical instead doesn't hurt them.
The real reason why this is happening is resisuals. Physical media residuals for actors and writers is still high, much, much, higher than Disney+. By cutting physical media out of their lineup, it's another way for Disney to try and not pay their employees fairly
Thanks Jeff. I’m a from Sydney and have been collecting physical media for over 30+ years. Starting out with Beta tapes, to VHS, Laserdisc, DVD then blu ray and 4K.
Also a massive Star Wars nerd. So to think that collectors won’t be able to grow their Star Wars collection when the inevitable new movies come out (short of spending a tonne on imports) is a real shame. Hell, I was looking forward to closing out my Indy collection soon.
I hope, like you mentioned, that we may learn more in the future. But for now, I’m heartbroken this decision has been made.
I'm in New Zealand, and ever since Disney shut shop here it has been difficult to source physical media locally. A majority of my purchases in the last year or so have been from Australia. I'm not too concerned about Disney's current slate but not having the Fox catalogue is gonna be a huge disappointment. To source it from US or Europe is gonna be pricey. I'll be spending boutique label money on studio titles which is gonna suck. Hoping for the best!
This is a real shame, Disney have forgotten they used to be the leaders in this field. Ireland is treated horribly for physical media leaving Amazon the only realistic option. These companies wonder why the Amazons of the world take the biggest market share
Thanks Jeff for publicising what's happening to physical media collectors here in Australia! First Disney gave everyone terrible sound mixes with no bass or dynamic range, and now they're cutting off physical media altogether. The only hope is that, given Disney's financial situation, they get bought out by someone who actually cares about giving the fans what they want.
I’m from Melbourne Australia and this is just terrible!What is happening to this world?Ive been a hard physical media for over three decades and this is upsetting
As a worker at JB for many years a title like Indiana Jones and all its versions has been a cornerstone of the business and it's gonna be really sad we don't have the next great release for the collection.
If Disney wants to make it hard for Australians to see their content, it still won't be hard to see their content - they just won't be making profit from it.
and just luuuuuuuurv TPB here in Australia
Disney as a company is going down the toilet all because of Bob Iger. Only the removal of Bob and the entire board of Disney will remedy their bizarre decisions. If this is actually true, my guess is that "Bob" is doing an experiment in Australia, to see if he can boost/force people to use Disney Minus (+), since that online streaming service is failing worldwide and continuing to make MASSIVE losses.
I've been a movie collector all my adult life and regularly buy physical media in Australia from places like JB HiFi. I will be devastated if I can't buy physical media and have to buy more movies at a more expensive cost from overseas suppliers. If it were only Disney movies I could live with that, but if it includes 20th Century Fox titles, that is disgusting!!! They really don't like making money, which is totally bizarre. I wonder what James Cameron has to say about all this???!!!
While I do not think that physical media will go extinct, I am increasingly concerned that companies like Disney that own the 20th Century Fox, Touchstone, etc libraries are possibly going to not license their libraries to boutique labels just due to their lack of respect for the rich history of film and going all in on streaming, and actively try to hurt physical media.
Does anyone know if they've been doing business with the boutique labels as of late? Has it decreased in the last year? I think this could be a legit issue in the future with their retro libraries. I hope I'm wrong, but Bob Iger clearly has zero respect for film and especially film history.
It's definitely a worry how up in the air this all is right now but the glass-is-half-full side of me thinks the more Disney rejects physical media the more potential there is for the boutique scene to pick up the pieces. There's a lot of room for more mainstream studio catalogue material in the boutique market and perhaps Disney just needs someone who actually cares to do the work for them? Imagine the Touchstone catalogue being given the proper 4k treatment. Fingers crossed this is where it's heading.
Really? Sadly I reckon it will be gone in ten to twenty years.
Genuinely appreciate your commentary and understanding. Disney on the other hand are a bunch of scumbags. In Autralia we'd call this 'Un-Australian'. So furious at this decision by them.
Remember, Disney owns most cinematic content now.
Piracy and not subscription is the answer.
Disney wants viewers to fork out for permanent subscriptions to access their content. Ethically, if you were prepared to pay for ownership of physical media, yet that has been denied in favour of
Great Reset “you will own nothing” lease agreements with notions such as Disney +, then consumers would be wise to boycott. Piracy isn’t unethical if you would have paid if a reasonable option were made available.
This comment reminds me of the Russian tax system that I learned about in Uni. There are more taxes because people cheat, and people cheat because if they truly paid all their taxes there would be nothing left. Don't know what it's like 20 years later.
As an Australian physical media collector, waking up to this today, I quickly went online and tried to fill some of the holes still in my collection. JB is culling its Disney stock already. It's truly disappointing for fans of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Fox, Touchstone, Buena Vista. Rough day for me.
I’m from NZ, and I quickly ordered The Last Duel, West Side Story, and the King’s Man because they hadn’t been released in New Zealand, as well as some of their animated films too. Truly sad that a lot of these films will be much harder to find.
@@HunterJ1999I hear you, mate. I was just walking the aisles of my local JB and just seeing everything that will no longer be available. All the things a young person might wander in, pick up on a whim and it become their favourite thing. Avatar, Alien, Predator, Die Hard, Commando, Hocus Pocus, The Mighty Ducks, Home Alone, Firefly, The X-Files, The Simpson's, Terminator 2, Tron, Raiders of the Lost Ark - I could go on and on. Anyway, I don't think I'll ever subscribe to Disney+ again. I'm done with that now. I'll always have my movie collection to loyally be there and not be removed to save on royalty payments.
This is actually devastating.
I'm Aussie, and this breaks my heart! Why can't they ban digital media too? Get that shit out of here.
I really hope Disney hurts in the most painful way possible because of this in the long run. They are just becoming more and more of an embarrassment each and every day. It would be awesome if they license all thier project to companies that actually cares about physical media. I'm already at that point. Who needs them?
Less people are buying discs as a whole, it’s just obsolete anymore
@@RB01.10
Blu-ray and 4K Blu ray is _not_ obsolete
@@connorpusey5912 They in fact are.
Add to the fact that Samsung discontinued making Blu Ray players back in 2019.
Also, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy (which has already discontinued CDs) have all scaled back their disc areas.
Also from Forbes :
“In 2022, DVD and Blu-ray sales in the U.S. were an estimated $1.58 billion, a decline of nearly 20% from $1.97 billion in 2021. In addition, disc rentals had declined from $602.7 million in 2021 to $502.4 million last year.”
I still feel like physical media will be around for a long time because people are starting to realize the value of physical over streaming and digital
This is why I will continue to buy bootlegs of things I want, when no official release exists. And Disney nowadays is a complete joke. They are running the company into the ground.
This whole crusade against physical media in recent times has been so disturbing. Just recently Sony actually withdrew out of germany as a publisher but thankfully another smaller publisher is gonna take over for them and will release future Sony properties here. Still, this whole trend of leaving behind physical media is giving me headaches and I don't know why you can't just have both digital and physical to choose from. It's always better for the customer to have options.
I live in Australia and this kinda sucks as I'm just starting to build my 4K physical collection. It's even a struggle to order discs online as most discs are still region locked and won't play on most players here.
Thanks for your kind words. I’m in Australia and a physical media collector. I have no intention of streaming my movies. So ordering from overseas will be our only option. Thanks Disney. I cannot believe they’re doing this! Talk about cutting out your profits!
They don't give a fuck about you because modern audiences prefer streaming
It's worth noting that Zavvi have also stopped shipping physical media to Aus/NZ which limits us even more, sad to see.
They have in fact stopped ALL International shipping.
@@werdna9006 yeah very sad
also HMV
@@werdna9006 Some kind of fraud involved? Or the publishers leaning on them?
I've been collecting tons of Disney/Fox titles on DVD for many years since I was little and seeing the news like this while waking up in the morning is not the best day ever. As a physical media lover born in Australia, I will say that I am very disappointed about Disney's decision not to move forward with physical media and its heartbreaking to a lot of us. 💔😪
It might not seem like much but to collectors that means no more DVD, Blu Ray, 4k, anniversary releases, directors cuts, limited editions, special editions, extended editions, first season, last season, complete series, box sets of anything owned by Disney. And yeah I have heard words that Paramount and Sony will also be stopping all physical media in Australia by the end of the year. Universal has already stopped selling Dr. Who over here. And this is hitting Australia and New Zealand now but how long before they stop it in the usa? Physical media sales are a fraction of what they used to be. And I think streaming is more profitable by comparison. I don't like streaming but the companies like making money and that seems to be part of the reason they are stopping physical media. If there is no physical media then it forces people to join the streaming sites.
Since Criterion released Wall-E, I have been wondering if perhaps Disney is testing the waters with pulling out of physical media, but perhaps they will start using third parties like Criterion to release movies in some capacity.
I'II be very candid about home media in Australia
- it's doing nowhere near as well as you imply here. Almost no one I know buys physical, the physical "collectors" online are a very, very small bubble. One of our largest physical retailers, Sanity, just closed all of their brick and mortar stores (they were in the game decades before JB Hi Fi). JB, actually, have been shrinking their physical media sections for the last few years.
They've, in fact, entirely removed physical media from most of their "free-standing" stores. Basically, you can only get physical in JB mall stores (I think rural mall stores still have physical sections, though). Whenever I go into JB, no one is even in physical (it used to be packed 5 years ago).
Kicks (the official online storefront of Uni/Sony) closed down recently too. In fact, only a few months back, reports surfaced that Uni / Sony was considering pulling out of physical here entirely.
Retailers are constantly having physical "clearance" sales. Disney, in fact, is a regular participant in "clearances"... you've been able to pick up 4K discs as low as $8 in recent sales.
Our three major 'super stores* - K-Mart, Target, Big W stopped selling physical media 2-3 years ago.
Occasionally you'll find a DVD or two.
The only reason so many of our local labels are even doing these lavish special editions is because it's the only way they can stay in business. They've all had to entirely flip their business models over the last 1-2 years. As far as I'm aware, a GOOD % of their sales are from international buyers, and that's who these releases are geared at.
Case in point: two great local labels - Shock and Beyond - went out of business in the last 12 months.
I spoke to Disney 3 years ago, and even then they told me they were "reassessing" physical. This isn't a surprise to me in the slightest.
It sucks, but it makes sense.
Nice to get some input from someone who's actually in Australia. Being from Calgary Canada physical media is not doing bad here. Every store here was sold out of Evil Dead Rise in 4K on release day causing me to order it from Amazon.
As for the Disney Movie club I never used it and no one I know did or cared about it. As the service was so expensive. They charged more for a movie with shipping then Bestbuy, Walmart or any other store. You were also required to buy a certain amount of films to keep it. So you would end up buying over priced movies you may never watch or really want for a single specific tittle.
Not surprising, I live in Los Angeles and the retailers are slowly doing that here as well. Target and Wal-mart have pathetic selections, stalwarts such as Best Buy are on the edge of discontinuing physical media if not shutting down completely, we lost Fry's recently, K-mart is defunct (not that they ever had a good selection) and the record stores such as Tower, The Wharehouse, Music+ and Sam Goody are memories of the distant past. Small boutiques such as the CD Trader in Tarzana, Ca are far a few in between but I have gotten some golden finds there. Now sadly it's Amazon that I get most of my 4K releases from, I have dipped into Arrow and Vinegar Syndrome from time to time but Amazon's the most lucrative now.
@@TheTonyahawkYeah I noticed that at Target and Walmart. My grandparents live in Florida and my auntie owns a house in phoniex. I was in Florida in March and December being very surprised at how small Targets selection has gotten compared to what it once was as I go to Florida once a year or more to visit.
Well that’s disappointing. So maybe it’s not good business. But the accessibility is going to become an issue for people and that definitely sucks. You are right though - a lot of the Aussie label sales go to foreign collectors.
I don't honestly think it's all that much different in the US. I subscribe to a rental-by-mail service that only does 4K discs and it appears that every week they process about 400 orders... in a country of over 330 million people. Granted, there are a handful of companies in that business here, but I doubt any of them are doing tens of thousands of discs every week.
That said... There are enough of you southerners in the comments here that someone down under may be able to make a go of importing discs and starting your own rental service. I couldn't even begin to imagine the legal side of that there, but... if Disney doesn't want that market, let them come find you? 🤷♂
As a physical media collector I will speak on behalf of all of us in Australia:
Very disappointing. Disney, you want us all on board but now it’s really going to be Streaming under duress.
Shame Disney shame.
this is absolutely ridiculous!! as an Australian collector who just started collecting i find this as something that will affect me a lot. if this goes through, the only thing i would want is to be able to buy more Spider-Man movies
We can still get the new Spiderman releases because it's owned by Sony. Spiderman Across The Spiderverse will be out on dvd, bluray and 4k September 13.
I live in Melbourne Australia, I love to actually own the things I buy and enjoy them without depending on the internet. There's no question that Disney is doing this due to losing money from their garbage movies they've been putting out, and their streaming service is loosing billions of dollars, and lots of subscribers, so now they're forcing people to use it.
I have used Disney plus, but not much and this sure isn't going to make me use it again, more like pirate their stuff I want from now on.
Wait till they cry that piracy is more popular because no one want all these streaming services
No wonder everyone hates Disney
I’m an Australian and this is so sad and disheartening. I collect physical media especially if I love the movie. I understand Disney plus is great and convenient but I’ve still bought marvel’s latest releases on 4K even the steelbooks. Hell they still provide DVDs here in Australia for all new releases a format 27 years old. It’s going to be sad seeing the Disney section in JB go on discount and disappear as they widdle down the stock they have left. Sad and unfortunate. Hope this won’t start a trend from other companies.
Disney is going to go bankrupt.
they make a billion dollars a month off Disney + lol, i think there fine
@@treewisps4085 Disney+ operates at a loss.
Disney’s not going anywhere. You sound like the woke go broke tryhards..instead let’s say something like the way Disney’s contents been going we might not miss them lol. But let’s be clear that the giant that is Disney making any steps away from physical is a bad thing until digital can equal the quality
Hardly. The parks alone bring in a fortune.
@@cjp.6880 The irony isn’t lost that you went “so far” as to reply to my reply. Glad it triggered you..Do you need a safe space my dear?
Last i checked DVD has very fast and flexible production with over twenty years to figure out how to optimize their production. When Disney says there isn't a business case, don't think they need to set up a special factory/ pipeline to print any particular movie, it's literally just giving the DVD mastering company the master and stating how many copies you want, and a week or two later, your order has been printed and in the retailer.
Older physical media should be kept and saved...films old and new are now being cut for reasons of "sensitivity". The writers who inspired many productions i.e. Iain Fleming...are also under the butcher's knife. This goes further than just a change of delivering content. This is the first step on the way to enforcing censorship. And could the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs be "taken out of circulation" due to its content now deemed as harmful?
I’m an Australian and have been collecting the Marvel Steelbooks every release day. JB hi fi is the only distributor that sells them instore here and they are already $40-$50 AUD each. It’s gonna be an expensive endeavour to keep the collection going now…
Good thing anything Disney the last 15 years hasn't been worth owning.
Also, I called this shit. If Disney has their way, they'd make it so you can't even own any of their stuff, just lock you into Disney+ permanently.
Physical media should be kept. The only reason they want to get rid of it is so they can keep ripping money out of the public. Why let you pay once and have it forever when they can charge you on a monthly basis for streaming. To hell with streaming, keep the discs.
At this point I'm in the camp of being done with Disney.... problem is 20th Century Fox catalog. I love Star Wars, just not the new Star Wars, and no way anyone is getting the recent shows on physical media.
I completely agree. And I hate they have the Touchstone catalog too
It's become very difficult for me to support Disney, too, with their attitude towards physical media and trying to force people to only watch their series content on Disney +. I've proudly not subscribed to Disney+ for many months now.
As I've said in another video, I'm not one to advocate for pirating DVD or Blu-Ray, but it sounds like the Aussies are gonna be introducing themselves to Blu-Ray burners and Blu-Ray blanks as well as Pirate Bay (or similar) for Disney/20th Century Fox stuff. Or at least eBay and Etsy where some sellers have them already available. And will more than likely continue to have them available.
Even though I disliked a lot of MCU phase 4, i really wanted to have Wandavision & Loki on physical. Disney not releasing physical Disney+ for the collection is so annoying 😒.
Yup
100% agree. I'm so frustrated with them for not releasing their shows on physical media that I ended my subscription to Disney +.
As an Aussie it sucks
Luckily I've already collected everything physical worth collecting from Disney. Officially the worst film company now
With the failures of Disney+ it is not at all surprising that Disney is scaling back physical media with the hope that it leads to more subscriptions.
It won't. Streaming is simply not a substitute for physical media. Someone who cares enough about quality and preservation to buy physical media is not suddenly gonna pay for streaming. If they won't sell proper digital copies they can't possibly make anybody switch from buying 4k discs especially. I don't understand why they refuse to sell films like that.
@@Dellerss Correct, streaming is a scam.
Not sure what Disney is doing by cancelling physical media in Asia and now Australia. As a member of the Disney Movie Club in Canada, it will be impossible to eventually get some of these older Wonderful World of Disney shows and classic films (especially live action) on disc as do not see them offering them for sale at retailers. I did notice a Wal-Mart that gets a bit more media have 2 large shelves with all Disney titles which looked like they were from the movie club - so I wonder if they are liquidating some of these club titles to retailers.
I am planning on making a few orders to grab some titles (last order date is Sept 25) which I now regret never picking up that are club exclusives - many of them not even in Disney+. I wonder if they are doing this to force fans to buy a their streaming service to watch their catalogue since it is not growing (and declining in some cases). I could see them cutting back on not releasing DVD copies and just focus on Blu-ray but scrapping all of it makes no sense unless nobody really is buying discs.
Disney mentioned in their email that it was closing the club because of lack of orders and declining membership - which I am sure is true but when was the last time you saw them even advertise this service?! Most probably have no idea it even exists. Ridiculous to cry about nobody buying your product and yet you never advertise to sell it.
This doesn't bode well for my ever diminishing hope that Disney will some day take the chains off of the various Fox releases I'd really like to see on 4K disc.
I think the best we can hope for at this point is for D+ to continue to lose money to the point that they come to their senses.
I’m a physical media collector from New Zealand, and sadly the writing was on the wall. A lot of Disney products such as the Marvel films, West Side Story, The Last Duel weren’t released here for a long time, if at all, and I would have to order from Australia to get them. They eventually released Shang-Chi and Eternals after a while, presumably by demand, so hopefully this changes as well, but this is a pretty big blow, especially as I wanted Dial of Destiny to close out my Indiana Jones collection.
Where abouts in NZ are you ?
I remember ordering Unbreakable from Amazon US back in the middle of 2021. It only just came out here a couple months ago!! Can't believe it.
Streaming is the worst thing to happen to film.
Yep, everything sucks now... no more masterpieces.
As an Australian this was certainly not the news I wanted to wake to this morning. It doesn't surprise me. We're a smaller market, inconsequential some might say, often among the first to be effected by changes such as this. Be it price hikes, changes to product availability, or test roll-outs of services that may not be ready for mass global release, our market can be a test bed for data gathering. Importing is an option of course, but it's an expensive one also seeing impactful changes. Recently a trusted importer of dvd/blurays, Zavvi, stopped all distribution to Australia too. Physical media is certainly being strangled.
I truly hope that physical media never dies, even if it becomes a niche market. I want to own my favorite movies.
What do you personally think will happen to physical media?
@@erickvoshel1 It's possible that it becomes a niche product, same as what happened with albums (vinyls, CDs, cassettes). It will probably be run by boutique studios. I just hope it doesn't disappear, because we have been getting some really good quality physical media and some very unexpected releases that I've been very happy about.
My prediction is it will be gone in 10 to 20 years, preserved only by those with the foresight and forward thinking to not "just throw them out" when streaming became the norm.
Hey Jeff, thanks so much for covering us here in Australia. Love your work mate. Yeah, thanks for mentioning JB HiFi , a buy a lot of my physical media from My local JB HiFi local stores.
If there is a silver lining to this, Disney is in such a financial pickle, they will have to sell off their product lines.
This is big stuff. Australia is still a pretty big market for physical media. Won't be long before they cancel in the US and UK at this rate.
Nope it tiny market Australia only has 25m people
@patrickmcwilliams7609 Australia sells its physical media internationally as some titles have only been released here.
Also some out of distribution titles are still available in Australia
as an aussie myself, i don't think it's just us. i find the timing suspect that disney did this during the strike that is specifically about how royalties from streaming is garbage. royalties from physical media is easy to track and gives good royalties and as that anonymous executive said "the endgame is to drag it out until they start losing their houses." i genuinely think this is an act of aggression.
Excellent example of why we should keep hold of our physical media. We don’t own anything in the cloud.
I will always buy physical media & prefer it to digital & streaming.
I agree - if you remember Ultraviolet - if you did not transfer over to Google play you lost everything- but then not everything transferred due to licensing
If Disney seriously thinks they could force me to get a D+ subscription with this action they are utterly wrong. this will 100% push me towards torrents.
Everyone CANCEL your Disney+ subscription! Lets‘s show them that they cannot treat fans like THIS!😡
This is a bad move by Disney. At least this is only Disney, apparently, stopping their releases of physical media. I have hundreds of movies & TV shows, but not even one is from Disney.
I'm in Australia and I've always refused to use any paid streaming service. The way our internet works, if someone up-stream is streaming a movie, it slows down the internet for everyone down-stream. At peak times, such as christmas and new year, there are loads of people streaming movies. That makes my internet slower.
One of the biggest reasons why I refuse to use paid streaming services has always been the same reason why there's currently an actors and writers strike. I've known for years that only the big name actors and movie executives get any money from streaming services. (A movie director mentioned it.) I've been telling everyone for years, too, but most people completely dismissed what I told them. Perhaps now they'll listen.
Netflix will also discontinue DVDs next month
It's really sad to see physical Media not being released to anyone that wants it
Agreed! Make it available to all.
This is all about corporate greed and control. Disney figures they can make more money off streaming by forcing people to rebuy their movies each time they want to watch them.
So frustrating, because of how far we are from the rest of the world shipping is so expensive, so to import nearly doubled the cost of buying and importing a Blu ray 😭
Truly alienating to say the least. As an Australian and a physical media collector this is just disappointing as all hell.
They probably just want to destroy ownership :(
Yes, they want you to rent things that you thought you owned.
Suits me as Disney simply do not have any recent movies worth owning on physical media.
It’s immensely cathartic to watch Disney slowly self implode. Imagine having the biggest money making franchises in the world and be losing millions because they continue to churn out crap. And refuse to pay writers and actors their worth, which has the entire industry at a stand still. The sooner these selfish corporate suits are out of the industry the sooner we can get back to watching great cinema. I just hope my Aussie indie labels are able to benefit by filling the void in the market Disney is throwing away.
Disney is clearly in a death spiral.
Hang on there... It's the writers and actors that churned out that crap. 🤷♂
It's true that rot starts at the core, but this apple has been fermenting on the ground for a long, long, time. Everyone from the boardroom to the writer's room needs to go.
Oh please
They’re multi billionaires.
They’re going nowhere
I visited friends in Oz in 2010 and they were merrily streaming (illegally) movies because legal streaming and physical media was just not available. So this is a years old problem.
Every time a new article comes out about the Disney company, it becomes more and more clear that they are completely out of touch with their audience.
They have no idea what the fuck they're doing, and I genuinely look forward to the day they go out of business.
You are exactly right. The studios have no idea what they are doing & coupled with the fact that the actors & writers are striking because of the poor treatment they are receiving at the studio's hands. Plus, adding insult to injury, Disney announced that "Wanda Vision was getting a physical release, but no disc & it's already making Marvel Fans more than upset. Talk about getting your customer's hopes up & then dashing them to pieces.
Perhaps this is just a conspiracy theory, but I suspect Disney is intentionally doing this to try and get more Disney+ subscribers, especially because subscriptions have been plummeting recently.
As an Australian I am sad, and disappointed! Whilst the market here for physical media is small, its still got a following, and a lot of families don't subscribe to Disney+, and like you say, we have big labels based here with a big collectors market! The fact that Sanity (smaller footprint than JB) of all places broke this news is really odd!!
Disney is a disgrace. “Celebrate 100 years of Disney with our decision to completely exclude your entire geographic region from the opportunity of ownership”.
I’ll be cancelling my Disney+ subscription.
My guess is this will not drive people to Disney+. Instead, it’ll drive people to piracy, in spite.
It’s like going back to the 80s and 90s where we were isolated from Disney VHS ownership as well.
🤦♂️
Why do this.
Physical media is much better quality than streaming!