Rather than leave it until the end of year, I’ll do a running list of my progress each month, starting with… er, January. As far as counting goes, as usual I’ll only count ‘new’ views and while I’ll include tv shows in the mix, as last year I’ll count specials or entire seasons of shows towards the final tally for the year. I will however, while counting them in chronological order, keep the two (films and television) on seperate lists though, because I’m curious what the proportions will be at the end of year, as a lot of my viewing seems to be tv shows lately, if only because watching whole seasons naturally takes a lot more time. So without further delay;
TV Shows
4) Two Doors Down Season Two (2016)
8) Short Treks: Calypso (2018)
12) Sex Education Season One (2019)
14) The Expanse Season Two (2017)
Films
10) Beast (2017)
13) Polar (2019)
Music (not counted on the list, but I’ll track them)
Apollo 13 OST by James Horner (expanded two-disc edition)
So that’s 14 on the 2019 tally so far, which is pretty good considering it includes five entire seasons of television shows , and doesn’t include my rewatch of the whole of The Expanse Season One (it’s a wonder I found anytime to review them on this blog, just the idea of watching five seasons sounds like a slog). January highlight was The Expanse Season Two, which was pretty bloody amazing, frankly, and I’m still buzzing. You can be sure season three will be on the February list, because I’m watching it now.
One thing I will raise- January was dominated by streaming. I watched one series (Two Doors Down) on DVD, one series on Blu-ray (The Expanse Season Two) and two films on Blu-ray (Game Night and Shadows & Fog). Everything else was streamed, and the majority of it on Netflix. Being a late convert to all things Netflix, I’m a bit alarmed that my blog is fast becoming a Netflix blog, but I suppose it’s only reflecting the changing times we are living in.
the ghost of 82 
Sometimes I wonder how people can be so foolish to abandon physical media for streaming — even given the convenience, haven’t they seen the increasing rounds of stories/warnings about purchases going missing, about services shutting down (Ultraviolet being the latest), etc, etc?!
But then there are those of us who are definite physical media fans, who still end up watching more on streaming than on disc, and I realise there is no hope for laypeople.
Yeah, in some ways going the Netflix route seems self-defeating but there seems little point working against the tide- afterall for a lot of the content, either Netflix or Amazon is the only way to access it. I do fear the worst when Disney launches its own service if it goes the exclusivity route with its Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar etc content. I saw a new report that tv license subscriptions have reduced over here in the UK substantially over the past twelve months – I can understand people going the internet-only route but I’m not sure how that works if people still want to access iplayer, or how the BBC polices that.
I haven’t trusted digital ever since I got Blade Runner on Ultraviolet years ago with a blu-ray copy and the digital copy disappeared several months later. I fear for the future- maybe we’ve had the best of times, and it’s all downhill from here. I shouldn’t complain with so much content to watch but I really prefer collecting my favourites on disc.
I think the only ‘reasonable’ way is to use both digital and physical media — like you say, there are all those exclusive series, but you can’t rely on it for other stuff. And yet people do, and then complain when what they want to watch isn’t on there. I don’t know if people will get wise to that fact, or if “what Netflix can license” is the future. Though, the way things are going, the other major studios will follow the Disney route and there’ll be dozens of different services. That’s not sustainable, surely — no one’s going to pay c.£10 a month each to Netflix and Amazon and Disney and Warner and Paramount and Universal and…
re: the BBC, you do have to have a licence to use iPlayer now, but I seem to remember reading their powers/ability to enforce it has been scaled back — that about the most they’ll do now is send a strongly-worded letter. I heard the other day that they’re intending to launch a Netflix-esque iPlayer subscription, giving you longer/perpetual access to whole series. It’ll be interesting to see if that happens or what the take-up is — I imagine good, honest licence payers would be miffed if they had to pay extra to access it.
Yeah as someone who just paid £150 the other day to renew my licence I would be livid at the prospect of the BBC endeavouring to get more dosh out of me. If they aren’t careful outlandish pricing etc will just cause them to lose more viewers/tax payers and risk pushing people towards the more shady ways of accessing content. With Netflix, Amazon,and whatever service like Sky or Virgin that people use, it’s getting a bit daft. I read somewhere that Universal is looking to launch its own streaming service in light of Disney+ and I have to wonder where all this will end and how deep they think our pockets are.