Gen Z Turns Against Streaming

It’s been over a decade since media corporations started insisting that streaming represented the inevitable future of entertainment. Physical collections were obsolete, they said. Subscription libraries would replace shelves full of discs, cartridges, and books.

The not-so-subtle implication was that ownership itself had become obsolete. Consumers would supposedly embrace on-demand access to infinite content for one low monthly fee.

It turns out that physical ownership isn’t quite dead after all.

A recent report shows that large numbers of Gen Z viewers now subscribe to streaming services only long enough to binge specific shows before canceling them. More and more younger viewers rotate between services instead of maintaining long-term subscriptions.

Meanwhile, even Netflix has begun cautiously returning to physical media releases with deluxe collector’s editions and high-end Blu-ray sets.

Those developments are not isolated incidents. Taken together, they reveal mounting dissatisfaction with the disposable entertainment model Silicon Valley spent years imposing on consumers.

Ironically, the generation least attached to physical media may become the force that revives it.

Read the full post on Substack.

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