Hmmm. I don’t agree with the comparison between streaming and physical media like DVDs. I’ve never thought of it like that. I compare streaming to linear television. When BBC One show a Pixar film, I don’t know ‘oh no, I don’t own a copy’ – I watch it (or not!) and know that I’ve just seen it the once. Similar to going to the cinema I guess. And if I want a physical copy I’d buy a DVD or download a file (iTunes or similar). Perhaps it’s my younger age, but I think it’s comparing apples with oranges.
Yes, I think what's clear from this thread is a lot of people consider the streamers to be primarily something they'd use for archive shows and are disappointed that it has largely replaced physical media; whereas for me I watch little in the way of archive and am much more interested in their new, original series. That's why Britbox is so unappealing to me as there's nothing new on it and I rarely rewatch old shows I've seen before.
For that reason I personally would compare it more to having a Sky subscription than DVDs but that's just based on the way I use it.
I'm really enjoying the streaming revolution at the moment. I love being able to pick and choose between the services and being able to unsubscribe and resubscribe depending on what's just been released. Over lockdown me and my housemate have combined our log ins on the smart TV and have access to Netflix, Prime, Apple TV+ (through its endless free trial), 6 months of Britbox, 6 months of Disney+ (both through phone contract deals) and the year discount subscription for Discovery+. And of course that's in addition to access to the free catch up services.
There's a hell of a lot there to enjoy and for me it highlights just what bad value a Sky subscription is (unless you need it for sports, if Sky+ is a necessity or if your internet is slow) when you can you can subscribe to three or four streamers tailored to your interests, including Now TV which gives you the key Sky channels anyway, for around about the same price.
And just to add despite having access to all this we'll always go through the Freeview
EPG first. We probably watch more on demand now but linear remains our first port of call in case we're missing something we wouldn't have naturally chosen on demand.