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To be honest, I’m mostly interested in Hayao Miyazaki’s films (My Neighbor
Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo). They aren’t available on Netflix, iTunes,
the PS3 or Xbox VOD services despite other Disney-owned movies (Pixar movies
for example) being available there. Has Disney ever put any of Ghibli's films
in any digital distribution service?


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2013-05-31T20:53:14.630
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studio-ghibli hayao-miyazaki
Where I can buy/rent digital versions of Studio Ghibli films?


For whatever reason, Disney seems to prefer more traditional distribution
methods. Going to Disney's [Studio
Ghibli](http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/studio-ghibli.html) page, I could not
find any information on purchasing these in any digital format. All of the
links they had were to purchase physical DVDs or Blu-rays. If they were
selling it in a digital format officially, I imagine they would have included
that on the website.

As for streaming services, you've listed most of the relevant ones, which
probably means it isn't being streamed anywhere legally. I know for a fact
that Ponyo was available at one point for streaming through Netflix, but what
movies these services offer can vary on a day-to-day basis. I can't tell if
any of them are available for streaming at the moment, but even if they are,
it would likely change in the near future anyway, so your best bet is just to
check with whatever services you do use and see if they have it. If not, your
only legal option (at the moment) is to buy the DVD/Blu-ray.


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2013-06-08T23:22:04.327
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I have discovered that its the 'Japanese arm of studio Ghibli' that is
withholding the digit oral distribution rights and bans any company or studio
from selling or renting the Ghibli films in digital format. But what they gain
by doing that is a still anyone's guess. :-/

Truthfully no one knows why they won't release the films digitally. I've had
no luck in trying to contact Ghibli, Disney who do the American dubbing and
distribution, or StudioCanal who now do the UK distribution.

The simple answer is you can't buy them anywhere and the only way to get hold
of them is to rip a digital file from the DVD or Bluray, if you have the know
how to do that, or get the films illegally from Internet torrents which no one
wants to do as a general rule, given that its fiddly, time consuming,
unreliable and illegal. Presumably, there's some complicated licensing issue
at stake or perhaps one of the investors has some vested interest in Bluray or
DVD distribution that they need to protect, but it's all guesswork and
conjecture unless someone can find an explanation or actually get a response
from one of the companies on the matter.

I'm just a Miyazaki fan like any other and am always frustrated by this when I
periodically try and hunt for any of the films to buy so I message them on
their UK Facebook page intermittently to try and get their attention on the
matter, though again I've never had a personal reply to any message I've sent,
nor to any queries I've sent directly to the studios. But I did start a
petition the other day on change.org and sent it out into the net just to see
how much attention it gets as I'd be curious to know if there's many other
people looking for these films online or if I'm just a frustrated minority.

The petition is connected to Disney and StudioCanal who seem, according to
Google searches, to be the studios currently controlling the western
distribution rights. Whether there are other companies imposing the
restrictions from elsewhere, it's hard to tell but Disney and StudioCanal are
the ones losing profits by not selling the films and so if enough people post
on their Facebook page, email other studios and sign petitions like the one
I've started, then eventually the studios might start thinking there's enough
interest in the films that its worth resolving whatever issues are preventing
their digital distribution and releasing them. They're the ones who have the
power to change things and resolve whatever problems are holding the films
back so if they can be made to see they are encouraging piracy of films they
hold the rights to by refusing to sell them and thus losing out on millions in
revenue from those lost sales then logic would suggest that eventually they've
got to see reason and fight whatever is preventing them from releasing these
films. Holding them back must be losing them money from lost sales and
encouraging piracy to boot as that's the only way to get the films at the
minute so presumably there must be a huge legal, financial or contractual
obstruction in the way that is preventing the films being distributed and
knowing exactly which studio or company is responsible for the restriction is
nearly impossible but with enough consumer interest and consumer complaints
they must eventually relent and resolve the issue.

For now the only solution to this problem, apart from reverting to DVDs and
Blurays, seems to be pirating the films illegally (far from ideal or advisable
for many obvious reasons but as absurd as it may seem that is the only option
people are being offered currently) or alternatively the only other option is
contacting and pleading 'en mass' with the studios involved to request the
release of the film. My humble attempt to write a petition is below and states
the frustration of not being allowed to legally buy films and being forced to
pirate or go without and the logic of releasing the films digitally and pleads
with the studios to release them.

Anyone out there who wants to see these films released, I'd encourage you to
consider signing it or even starting your own petition if you believe you have
found a better platform to launch one from or a more direct line to the
correct studio or person that hold the decision on releasing these films or
not. But also reply on this post or others if you find out any further
information on why the films aren't available or who is responsible for their
restriction.

The best educated guess is what's already been stated in previous answers,
that the studios (Disney and StudioCanal it seems but there may be other
Japanese studios in loved in the matter too) may (and this is purely
guesswork) have a financial investment in Bluray or DVD so don't want to
support the (perhaps less profitable?) digital distribution of the films. If
this is the case then the way to reverse their decision would be to convince
them that they have more to lose by not selling the films digitally than to
gain by only selling physical discs.

If they think people are buying the discs because they're not sold digitally
then they will never release the films but if they get the message that people
are choosing to pirate the films instead of buying he discs then they might
realise that it's in their interest to sell the films online digitally. A
popular misconception is that video piracy exists because people don't want to
pay but the emergence of iTunes and Netflix, et al has shown a huge drop in
piracy, suggesting that people are quite happy to pay if the price is right
and the service is easy to use so far from piracy being held in place by copy
protection and legislation it would seem its actually prevented by offering
consumers an easy affordable alternative.

That is the message that the studios need to hear from their customers in
order to convince them that wide digital distribution of films is the only
solution to preventing piracy. For the moment they may still see Blurays and
DVDs as more profitable but until the scales tip completely over to digital
streaming sales the only way to make your voice heard is to speak up to the
studios. If enough voices are heard they will listen. They have no way if
knowing how many people are refusing to buy physical discs or have already
bought discs but would be willing to buy digital versions too if only they
were available so the only way of them knowing that is if consumers speak up.
This isn't an answer to where you can buy the films in the short term but
hopefully it may be part of the solution to ensuring people can buy the films
in the long run.

[Join the campaign to make the films available on
change.org](https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/studio-canal-disney-studio-
ghibli-release-studio-ghibli-films-on-digital-streaming-download-
formats?share_id=BcDWDwKUad&utm_campaign=twitter_link&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition)


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If you live in Italy, since the 8 November plenty of Studio Ghibli features
are available on Infinity, the new streaming service from Mr. Berlusconi's
Mediaset:

<http://www.infinitytv.it/>

As I live in the UK, I cannot subscribe that service, but apparently they may
even allow you to download the features on mobile devices.

The Infinity TV blog dedicated a recent entry to Miyazaki:

<http://blog.infinitytv.it/talk/miyazaki-filmografia/>

If Studio Ghibli allows that in Italy, I would imagine is merely a matter of
providers for other territories not being able to match its commercial
demands.

While anime in Italy is not as big as in Japan, it is way bigger and popular
among the general audience than in USA or in UK, so new challengers on the
digital market arena such as Infinity TV are probably getting a larger
incentive on matching the requests of the Japanese film studio or of its
distributors.


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There are some titles in the UK iTunes store, like [The Castle of
Cagliostro](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/the-castle-of-
cagliostro/id914600854?ign-mpt=uo%3D4) or [Grave of the
Fireflies](https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/grave-of-the-
fireflies-1988/id917750274?ign-mpt=uo%3D4). Not so much, but is something.


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