Media’s Impact on Streaming: A Look at the Prevalence of Death

nment. They are time machines, offering a glimpse into historical moments, or occasionally, just a great excuse to avoid finishing an assignment.

Lately, though, I have been thinking about something that is hard to ignore, and that is streaming. The technology that once freed us from rummaging physical stores for DVDs is now erasing a part of our cinematic history. Streaming is killing movies. And I am not just talking about the latest Marvel flop. We are losing timeless classics, culturally significant works and hard-to-find gems, all vanishing into the digital void.

According to a recent article in Forbes, “the future of Hollywood changed forever in August 1997,” when two entrepreneurs came up with an idea for a subscription-based mail-order DVD rental business. That business? Netflix. Mailing DVDs to subscribers who wanted to avoid Blockbuster was groundbreaking at the time. By 2009, Netflix was shipping 900 million DVDs annually to more than 10 million subscribers. But Reed Hastings, Netflix’s co-founder, had an even bigger idea — streaming.

In 2007, Netflix launched its subscription video on demand (SVOD) service. Back then, streaming movies directly to TVs seemed futuristic, but Hastings knew it was the next big thing. At first, the streaming catalog was limited to just 1,000 films compared to 70,000 available on DVD. But as broadband technology became widespread, the streaming business boomed. Today, Netflix has over 282 million subscribers globally, making it the world’s most valuable media company.

Sounds like a dream, right? Well, not quite. Here is the issue, while streaming platforms have made accessing movies easier, they have also introduced a huge problem. Movies are not treated like the cultural treasures they are. They are treated like disposable content. One day you are rewatching The Sound of Music (1965), and the next day it is gone.

And do not even get me started on indie films or documentaries — they often do not even make it to streaming in the first place. Streaming platforms only push what is trending. Once the hype dies down, the movie is removed to make room for the next big thing. This is not just inconvenient, it is dangerous.

Movies have the ability to capture the essence of a specific period in time, a feeling or even a movement. They educate and preserve stories that shape our collective identity. Movies like Schindler’s List (1993) and The Godfather (1972) do not just entertain us, they provide valuable insights into history and culture.

Renowned director and filmmaker Martin Scorsese has voiced concern on this issue as well. “We can’t depend on the movie business, such as it is, to take care of cinema,” he wrote in Harper’s Magazine. Scorsese went on to say that in the streaming world, “everything is presented to the viewer on a level playing field, which sounds democratic but it isn’t.”

To preserve these cultural treasures, let us revive our love for physical media. Owning a DVD or Blu-ray means you have it forever — no subscription needed. Plus, there is something deeply satisfying about building a collection of movies that shaped you. We also need to hold streaming platforms accountable. If they can spend billions on new content, they can also invest in preserving classics.

Streaming is convenient, but it is erasing something irreplaceable. Movies are fragments of our collective soul and losing them feels like losing a part of ourselves. So, next time you are watching a movie on a streaming platform, think about the story it tells and consider taking action to preserve these cinematic treasures for future generations.