Comment by numpad0

Film needs to be developed to be able to see the content at all. Regular color films after shooting is covered in extremely photosensitive, opaque gray paste, and it needs to be washed and cleaned in temperature controlled acid bath to remove the reactive part and only leave the image on the film.

Tapes, on the other hand... You can just rewind it, play it, and overwrite a few times. Cost differences are significant to say the least.