Movie Tragic: Why is it so difficult to rent a movie these days?

How often over the past few years have Irish people sat down to rent a film online, to discover that the only option available is to buy it outright, asks Simon Tierney.

Renting a movie: the glory days of dipping into film and telly libraries are gone with the end of physical media

I used to love renting movies in the days of bricks-and-mortar video shops. I have a vivid memory of racing into the Xtra-vision in Nenagh one Friday after school in 1996 to rent Men in Black, which had just been released on video. I was too late. All 15 copies had already flown off the shelves. 

The man at the counter sensed my disappointment and suggested I try another movie released that day called Scream. He packed the VHS into one of the iconic red and yellow cases, the musty smell of video tape permeating the shop as I left with my movie.