Why Do Living Companies Not Release Lost Media?

I think there are a number of reasons.

Some might be legal issues (the channels don't have permission from the creator of the show or media to release it) or just out of mere embarassment.

I know that one of the episodes of Kablam (I don't remember the exact epsiode) only aired once, and the creator doesn't have intentions to release it again, because they thought it was so terrible.

Upon looking up teletoon, it looks pretty interesting. I'm going to delve further into that.

Talking about "lost" media that is sitting in the production company's vault and not actual "no one involved with this has a surviving copy" lost media, there's usually six options:

1. Those involved do not believe it's profitable to re-release the thing in question.
2. There are legal issues (clearance, ownership, unpaid royalties, expired distribution rights, etc.) that are too difficult and costly to overcome.
3. It could be damaging to an individual/company's image to re-release it (Song of the South, etc.).
4. The costs to transfer the media to a new format in a proper release would be astronomical (think MMOs that have had their servers turned off, or really old films/TV shows that need a complete restoration).
5. Through company acquisitions/mergers and employee turnover, those currently running the company are unaware of what's in their library. Or you know, they forgot about it.
6. The thing is genuinely lost media where the materials are completely gone.

I think we're on the cusp of a huge boom in "lost" media across all mediums (movies/TV shows, games, music, and books). There has never been as much English-language produced material as there is now. There are hundreds of TV channels across the world creating original content each year. Thousands of films. Probably tens of thousands of apps/games and books. Tens of thousands of online videos. The barrier to entry to creating content has never been lower, but who is documenting this? Who is ensuring their continued availability? As physical media declines in favour of digital releases, we're running the risk of losing a lot of things. We're no longer buying a copy of something that will last as long as the physical item can. We're buying licenses/viewing windows that can be removed at any time. We've already seen countless video games have their online components shutdown and countless others get removed from digital storefronts. We've seen straight to Netflix/iTunes productions vanish. We've seen digital ventures run by huge companies fail and everything produced for it goes away with it. This happens all the time without notice.

That's not even dealing with the behemoth that is amateur-produced content on Youtube, Soundcloud, Amazon Kindle, etc. where 5 years from now the service they uploaded their stuff on has been shutdown and they have no backups, or the sole owner passed away and their digital storefront has to be removed since a dead person can't do website upkeep or collect a cheque.

The worst part is that we're living in the worst age of copyright protection, where companies have ignored fair use and have tried their hardest to prevent things from falling into public domain. These big businesses have shown time and time again they're uninterested and incapable of making their libraries available to current audiences, so it's up to historians and pirates. A Youtube user may have uploaded the only known footage of a show from personal VHS recordings. Then that channel to get taken down by copyright strikes so that "found" media becomes "lost" all over again.

You got it all right there.

I still wonder why disney didn't release dreamfinders, its not that hard to find in the "vault", unless they never made the damn thing.

i wish i could triple like this post

I was honestly surprised Doug Williams gave enough of a flying fook to respond to anyone that asked him.

So yeah, I guess the point's been made; the companies don't care, and why should they?