The delay in geographical releases is because studios license the copyrights to a regional studio or a distribution company.
Unfortunately, this arrangements prohibits them to use any alternate distribution channels to release the content on their own. Also, the regional company is unlikely to have any arrangements with services like Netflix and Hulu.
In the end its all about the money and bureaucracy.
Am I right to presume that this system with regional licences was set up by the studios themselves? What stops a studio from skipping their regional partners and just release their content worldwide?
The internet doesn't really know regions, so local distribution partners are no longer a concern (Except maybo for localizing content).
Are they losing money? If you canabalize your existing revenue stream by destroying distributor relationships in exchange for a new revenue stream that is tiny, you will lose money. Contrary to popular belief, most of the people making lots of money as executives are not stupid. They just have more data than the arm-chair quarterbacks have. What seems 'obvious' to us hackers is not always as clear cut when you have the numbers in front of you.
I am sure they do. But they have to rely on such distribution deals to make most revenue. They won't be able to distribute via main stream mediums like movie theaters and TV channels on their own because of extensive offshore logistics.
Unfortunately, this arrangements prohibits them to use any alternate distribution channels to release the content on their own. Also, the regional company is unlikely to have any arrangements with services like Netflix and Hulu.
In the end its all about the money and bureaucracy.