Although streaming dominates the home entertainment landscape, a lot of video fans watch and collect DVD and Blu-ray discs. In fact, there are many people (over 2 million) that take advantage of DVD and Blu-ray Disc rentals by mail through DVD.com, which is the Netflix DVD and Blu-ray disc mail service.
However, not only have those numbers been steadily decreasing in recent years, but Netflix has bigger things on its mind like spending lots of cash on original content production and building new production facilities on the Jersey Shore.
All of those factors contributed to the inevitable announcement that came this afternoon — Netflix is shutting down its DVD and Blu-ray rental business.
We hope this won’t create a Seinfeld “library cop” issue for some of you.
From Netflix CEO Ted Serandos: âAfter an incredible 25 year run, weâve decided to wind down DVD.com later this year. Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members but as the business continues to shrink thatâs 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…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.“
If you are a current Netflix DVD-by-Mail Customer, DVD.com has posted some Support FAQs. If you are not a user, but are curious on how it works and want to try it for the next few months, the basics are illustrated below.
After September 2023, it looks like Redbox kiosks will be the only way to rent DVDs and Blu-ray discs for most folks, unless you live in Bend, Oregon, where you can rent discs from the last remaining Blockbuster (which is doing really good business). In addition, there may be more going on with Blockbuster that is not yet known.
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ORT
April 19, 2023 at 3:26 pm
Bummer. đ
ORT
Ian White
April 19, 2023 at 4:54 pm
I wish they would sell them online at a discount. I added over 100 Blu-ray discs from BB when they went out of business for $300.
Ian of the Disc
ORT
April 20, 2023 at 1:50 am
Ian, my brother goes to garage sales and buys ’em up! A hard copy is the way to go if at all possible.
I just got my 4K disc of “Once Upon A Time In Hollyweird” back from our daughter and her husband as they just cannot watch it as their children are too young.
A friend at work recommend the film to me because of my Eric Cartmenish dislike of “hippies” and the ending is superb!
And I have the soundtrack on vinyl. I am such a nerd.
ORT