Netflix To End Its DVD Mail-In Program After 25 Years

The service started its DVD rental business 25 years ago. In a statement, the streaming service said that the rental business has been shrinking and it will not be able to offer quality service anymore.  

Netflix announced that it will ship the last disk on September 29th.

“Those iconic red envelopes changed the way people watched shows and movies at home – and they paved the way for the shift to streaming,” Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a blog post announcing the DVD service had entered its “final season.”

BACK IN THE DAY!

Back in the day when Blockbuster was everyone’s go-to for video rentals, Netflix co-founders Marc Randolph and co-founder Reed Hastings had flirted with the idea of challenging Blockbuster Video with mail-order VHS cassettes, but it would have cost too much. They instead landed on a more cost-effective proposition: DVDs sold and rented online.

The service launched in 1998 with fewer than 1,000 titles. It was a gamble that worked ultimately leading to the birth of Netflix’s streaming service.  Blockbuster would file for bankruptcy in 2010.