Fans of The Simpsons who have been dedicated enough to collect each series on DVD will have holes in their collection, it has been revealed, as Fox will no longer be releasing home DVD versions of the latest series.

It will concentrate on offering the shows for download or streamed instead.

Series showrunner Al Jean revealed that Fox Home Entertainment is withdrawing from releasing packaged DVDs of the show on his Twitter account, stating that he too is disappointed by the move.

"I personally am very sorry to see DVDs discontinued We did them purely for the love of hearing ourselves talk," he wrote last week.

Towards the end of last year, FX Networks released The Simpsons World application for multiple devices in the US, that offers streaming of all 552 episodes from the first 25 seasons and new episodes as they are broadcast. And its popularity is sure to have influenced Fox's decision to ditch physical media.

However, it is still not available outside of the States, so the only way to enjoy for UK fans to binge on The Simpsons episodes in the future will be to buy them individually from online retailers such as Amazon.

The show will continue to be broadcast on Sky, of course. So maybe there's still a reason for hard drive recording after all.