20 years later, and streaming Harry Potter is still too complicated

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone, depending on your locality) hit movie theaters 20 years ago today. It kicked off the eight-film adaptation of the massively popular children’s book series, which concluded with the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 a decade ago in 2011.

In that time, the Potter films have become a magnet for marathoning, driven in no small part by fan-favorite Freeform (née ABC Family) broadcasts of the films. ABC actually picked up the rights to the series just weeks after the first film had even hit theaters, reportedly spending roughly $140 million to be able to broadcast the first two movies.

The network spent the next decade collecting the broadcast rights to the...

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