Some of us remember when DVD was an innovative technology that had no shortage of superlatives from tech enthusiasts. With the emergence of the Blu-ray disc, home video took another apparent leap forward. Eventually, these formats both gave way to streaming and digital downloading. Despite the convenience of such alternatives, it appears that physical media is making a comeback. This might bring us back to a question some may have asked back when DVDs and Blu-rays were the primary options for watching movies and shows at home: Why didn’t anyone ever try to sell movies on USB sticks or similar small formats before streaming became commonplace?
The idea seems logical. Flash drives, SD cards, and USB sticks are all quite small. By the time DVDs and Blu-rays became widespread, many consumers had already used these storage options. Offering movies and TV shows in these formats seems like an obvious way to reduce package sizes while still providing new options that consumers would generally feel comfortable with. While the idea may sound good on paper, there are some practical realities of making these formats that explain why storing movies on USB drives never even made it to the experimental stage (at least on a large scale).
Nobody puts movies and shows on USB drives, mainly because of financial barriers.
Back around 2008, when most people were still using DVDs and Blu-ray discs for home video, the average cost of making a DVD was less than 50 cents. The result was a disk capable of holding approximately nine gigabytes of data. Making a Blu-ray disc was perhaps slightly more expensive, but not by much, with the average Blu-ray costing less than $2 to produce. One such drive offered up to 50 GB of storage.
Compare that to the cost of manufacturing a flash memory chip in 2008. The cost translated to about $2.50 per gigabyte, meaning that offering an entire movie or show in that format would be far too expensive for consumers. Piracy concerns may also have deterred companies from offering this format, as it is more difficult to encrypt USB drives and related formats than it is to protect DVDs and Blu-rays. Manufacturers essentially determined that it didn’t make sense to try to sell consumers a more expensive, less safe product.
Alternatives to traditional physical media technically exist
None of this is to say that no one has seriously considered the potential benefits of the USB approach. Although offering movies and shows on USB drives never became common practice among large companies, smaller companies like Video StoreAge are currently appealing to movie fans in the digital age by offering independent films via this format. Since the company is relatively new, it is impossible to say what the results of this experiment will be.
The fact that it’s possible to say that there’s simply no need for USB drives these days may not bode well for these types of businesses, but again, it’s too early to tell. In the meantime, you may have old DVDs and Blu-rays that you’d like to digitize because you prefer the convenience of streaming over the benefits of any physical format. If so, look for ways to turn your old physical media collection into your own streaming service, with all your favorites available on one platform. In terms of easy access to entertainment, it arguably even beats a small USB drive.
