The weird legal reason many of your favorite shows aren’t on DVD

As the physical media era comes to a close, the number of companies willing to pay the hefty fees necessary to close out music licensing deals has pretty much dwindled to two – StarVista and Shout! Factory. Not coincidentally, both companies have longstanding relationships with record companies that make closing deals for individual songs easier to accomplish. But music licensing is also vitally important to the new streaming era.

It's by far the biggest problem in getting old TV shows (and some old movies) into the hands of the public, and it all stems from US copyright law that were largely designed for a world where TV episodes would only be consumed a handful of times, copyright law that allows greedy rights holders to have an outsize impact on these sorts of negotiations. Indeed, if you're a fan of classic TV, then music licensing is one of the most important things you can understand, if you want to know why so many great shows seem to be disappearing down the cultural memory hole.