Only a government broadcaster would be stupid enough to delete its intellectual property.
Videotape was really expensive in the early years of TV.
The network headquarters I worked at wiped out tons of 60s and early 70s original programming due to the price of tape.
I copied a lot of quad tapes to digital Beta.
Some disintegrated as they played back.
I managed to snag one for myself as when the tape vault was being purged.
Thousands of tapes in all analog formats were tossed.