It's actually cheaper. I'm currently buying up copies of animated movies because I have newborn nieces and nephews that will start watching them in the next couple of years. I pick up the discs on ebay used for $2-$5 on average. I checked Amazon and the same movies on Amazon are $3.99 to rent and $15-$20 to purchase. Physical media is cheaper and then you can just make digital copies for the kids to watch and keep the discs in a binder as backups.