Netflix shuts down DVD business after 25 years

The red envelope is return to sender. On Tuesday, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos revealed the company’s DVD-by-mail business will shutter in September after 25 years.

“Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members but as the business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly difficult. So we want to go out on a high, and will be shipping our final discs on September 29, 2023,” Sarandos said in a statement posted by Netflix.

“Those iconic red envelopes changed the way people watched shows and movies at home — and they paved the way for the shift to streaming,” he added. “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.”

Sarandos concluded, “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.”

Netflix’s business model was revolutionary and changed how people rented physical media. Rather than visit a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster location, Netflix subscribers were able to select the movies or television shows they wanted to watch via an online platform and then receive a disc in the mail. Once completed, the subscriber would send back the disc and receive the next option in their queue. Netflix said it shipped more than 5.2 billion discs across its 25 years as a DVD-by-mail provider to more than 40 million unique subscribers. According to the company, the first-ever DVD sent out was “Beetlejuice,” while the most popular title was “The Blind Side.” 

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