Disney locks the Disney Vault, ceases DVD distribution in Australia

As noted by The Digital Bits, which first confirmed the news, the move is not surprising. Disney has already stopped distributing DVDs in some Asian and Latin American countries. Physical media sales in the region are dismal, and as global retailers like Amazon suck up a market share of customers, Disney has fewer reasons to keep shelves stocked.

It’s hard not to see this story as another death knell for physical media. As the writers’ and actors’ strikes have illuminated, streaming isn’t profitable, and those who make the content get paid peanuts for their work. Revenue streams, like home video, that were used to recoup profits on underperformers are drying up. As director Steven Soderbergh told Vulture: “The entire industry has moved from a world of Newtonian economics into a world of quantum economics, where two things that seem to be in opposition can be true at the same time: You can have a massive hit on your platform, but it’s not actually doing anything to increase your platform’s revenue. It’s absolutely conceivable that the streaming subscription model is the crypto of the entertainment business.”

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