Netflix has revealed that it will be winding down DVD.com later this year, marking an end to the DVD rental business that defined the streamer during its early days, before streaming media and video on demand took over. In a blog post titled “Netflix DVD – The Final Season,” co-CEO Ted Sarandos thanked everyone who had tried the service, explaining that Netflix will be shipping its final discs on September 29, 2023, due to the reduced relevance of DVDs. According to an image that Netflix shared, Beetlejuice was the first DVD that the company ever shipped, on March 10, 1998, while the most popular title was The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock.
From a Netflix post:
Those iconic red envelopes changed the way people watched shows and movies at home — and they paved the way for the shift to streaming. From the beginning, our members loved the choice and control that direct-to-consumer entertainment offered: the wide variety of the titles and the ability to binge watch entire series. DVDs also led to our first foray into original programming — with Red Envelope Entertainment titles including Sherrybaby and Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion.
We feel so privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD members for so long, so proud of what our employees achieved and excited to continue pleasing entertainment fans for many more decades to come.
To everyone who ever added a DVD to their queue or waited by the mailbox for a red envelope to arrive: thank you.
