Are people really paying for older series?

[TartanCurtains]

Today I thought about some older series I might like to finally watch over Christmas. One of them was Reign, from 2014. It isn't a Netflix original, but had been on there for a good few years. It seems the only way to watch it now is to pay £1.89 per episode, or £14.99 per season (of which there are four) on Prime or YouTube.

I realise content has to be funded and paid for somehow, but are people really paying this type of money to watch shows from eight years ago? Or do old shows just disappear after a while, because they're no longer free and nobody will pay to watch?

I usually look on eBay for a second hand DVD as it works out cheaper than streaming if I really want to see it. I wouldn't pay to stream a series, I occasionally pay to stream a film for a one off.

cough pirate cough

Why does it matter how old it is, if you haven't seen it?

That's like going in to Waterstones and expecting everything from Dickens to Salman Rushdie to be free. 🤔

@MintJulia It matters how old it is, because presumably there are very few people prepared to pay for shows from 2014 when there are so many newer things available for free. I don't think most people approach their printed literature choices in the same way. In your Waterstones analogy (leaving aside there is a unit cost of producing each book), I'm talking about sun lounger trash from 2014 that I assume Waterstones long ago stopped putting on their shelves. I'm not saying old shows should be free, I'm just questioning if anyone is actually prepared to pay for them.

Thanks for the suggestions on other ways to watch older shows 🙂

I track them on JUST WATCH which tells me when they come free on various platforms.

Or I just buy the dvd if it's never going to come onto included content. Then don't bother watching it!

I think that it's very common to want to watch a programme years after you've seen it. Yesterday I was tidying some Sharpies and thinking about the TV series Revenge.
This time of year people have the time and feel nostalgia so I reckon that they can sell old content like that.

Well the streaming platforms can't just stream unlimited movies/ TV shows. They have a capacity for what they can have on their services so they are not going to keep every TV show from 10 years ago that barely anyone is watching. They'll prioritise what is popular.

Even years ago it would cost aounrd £15 to buy a DVD/ VHS set of a TV series.

So YABU and it's a normal price to pay. People expect content for so little these days.

It matters how old it is, because presumably there are very few people prepared to pay for shows from 2014 when there are so many newer things available for free.

If you're not prepared to pay for it then just don't buy it/ don't watch it.

It makes no difference to the streaming platforms, why should they host something on their platform when it is old and not popular?

Older series often appear on free streaming channels like iPlayer or paid for BritBox depending on where it was originally shown

Is Revenge the same series showing on Disney+? The one about the Grayson's? It's awful but I'm totally addicted to it!!

@burnoutbabe Just Watch is new to me, but thank you!

Ah, I miss the days of videoing and labelling my favourite shows when they were on TV 😁

I recently saw they had added 'I dream of Jeannie' (1966) to Prime, and are charging £2.49 per episode or £5.99 per season. Also, Bewitched (1965), which costs £1.99/£9.99. I do think this is extortionate considering I have Prime membership, therefore chose not to watch them. Try online and secondhand shops, - I found the entire 'Only fools and horses' DVD boxset for £25 for my mum in a shop in Southend.

I think op is getting a hard time here, and I think it's totally reasonable to expect to be able to find old series for free on one of the channels of prime Netflix, sky, whatever.

I watched revenge years ago and really enjoyed it. I wanted to watch it again recently, but I refuse to pay the price.

I have put Revenge on my to watch list now, on Disney+, thanks to this thread

Yes I've recently bought the 1970s series Mary Tyler Moore Show. And I think I paid for the last few series of ER.
I'd pay for a movie too. I'm pretty sure I had to pay for a few in the James Bond series when we decided to do a marathon last year.

I just cancelled Brit box - (week free trial) as I wanted to watch bouquet of barbed wire but it only had the Trevor Eve one, I wanted to watch the 1976 one with frank finlay
i like old tv series, they’re popular

Movies123? 123Movies? Fmovies? 5.himovies.to? Why would you ever pay for these things?!

If you jailbreak your fire stick, there’s an app called cinema HD, I think, has all the older TV programs and films on there for nothing.

I like watching older series, it’s like watching an old friend, some definitely haven’t aged well though!
I’m rewatching criminal minds as the minute before I watch the reboot.

@Changingmynameyetagain I love criminal minds ❤️

Agree with others that buying DVDs on eBay is the way to go. We recently looked for a series we wanted to watch from quite a while back( successive series were available but included in the subs) but we wanted to watch from the beginning) £15 for the series on Prime. £1.50 for the DVDs including postage! Of course you need to still have a DVD player that's works.

It's their business model, they have decided this type of program will make them more money by charging per series or episode.

If I owned the rights to a tv show, I would choose the most profitable route to show them.

Who wouldn't?