After 25 years, Netflix will be shutting down its DVD rental service this September
After 25 years, Netflix will be shutting down its DVD rental service this September
The last disc will be shipped on September 29th 2023 after 25 years of service.
After an incredible 25 year run, we've made the difficult decision to wind down at the end of September. Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members, but as the DVD business continues to shrink, that's going to become increasingly difficult. Making 2023 our Final Season allows us to maintain our quality of service through the last day and go out on a high note.
I was a little disappointed when they notified me of the shutdown, then I started using the public library for DVDs. Great selection, I can get a lot more out at one time, and the discs are in much better shape. And free. Yes I know about taxes.
The library is an underrated resource when it comes to dvd rental. Damn though, I had no idea Netflix still distributed physical media. Props, I guess. I'm shocked they stayed in the game this long
I think I speak for most of the world when I say "Netflix still does DVDs??"
I thought they moved to only streaming (and online renting, at least at first) over a decade ago!
I think I speak for most of the world when I say “Netflix still does DVDs??”
I mean, you literally do, because that service apparently only existed in the US.
I'm on a forum which includes a lot of fans of classic films and they're really sad about this because they still use it to get films they haven't seen before and there's not a good alternative other than spending a lot more money to buy them individually.
What forum?
Does criterion channel not fill that role or does it just have too much missing from its library?
A forum for fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, so we tend to like things more on the obscure side.
Their dvd library went to shit a looooong time ago, so to echo some other comments here- i’m surprised the service was even still around. I used to get multiple discs at a time. (i think they had a 3 disc at-a-time plan where you could send one back and they’d send you the next in your cue, but you’d always have 3 at home.) Then as streaming started to take off and they started making their own TV shows it seemed like there was less and less DVDs for rent, and not just because id watched them. I was getting notices of things on my “wish list” or whatever about to become unavailable, or movies i wanted to rent again were just gone from the library. This effected movies, documentaries, TV series, lots of different content types. They rolled streaming into my plan for free and i eventually gave up on discs entirely and just canceled that part of my plan, sadly. Eventually completely canceled everything a few years ago, ended up never using the service anymore. There’s my experience no one asked for!
Whole crap they were still doing this?
Entire poop
Hundo P excrement!
What're they gonna do with all those dvds?
People have been asking this since they announced the end of DVDs and Netflix is yet to address it so it feels like they're probably gonna go to waste, fingers crossed that Netflix can get a bigger write off by donating them than burning them though lol
When Blockbuster shut down, they never made any attempt to collect DVDs that customers had out. That's how I scored my sweet, sweet copy of the classic Seth Green movie Without a Paddle.
They will possibly be sold off. In the UK we had postal rental service called LoveFilm, and when it eventually shut down many of the DVDs started appearing in second hand stores. For a whole there were bulk boxes of 100 random discs that were being sold very cheaply.
I don't find it very likely. All those current Netflix DVD users are also potential customers for the digital subscription. Suddenly all those DVDs floating around for pennies would reduce that number of potential customers, which I believe Netflix doesn't want.
Bury them in the desert
....much later
We believe these spherical discs were a totem of good luck for at least three decades until the Great Corvid the 19th disaster. Having failed to spare them, the population burned and buried them as false charms. Over here you can see collection marked Sandler. A possible trickster god.
Right next to the Atari game cartridges!
Where did all the E.T. cartridges go?
Find a site of an old blockbuster and leave it in the hole?
I thought of that too and I realized they must already have a channel to get rid of discs since they would need to dwindle down numbers after a new release is no longer in huge demand, it sounds like they also cull some old releases entirely based on the comments here.
I know GameFly sells their used games directly to consumers, but Netflix must be selling them in bulk to someone since they never do that. Unless they are getting like for rental only discs and have some sort of deal with studios where they have to return/discard them or something.
I imagine at least some will just be kept and pocketed since you can hold on to them as long as you want already.
Yes. We can convert those DVDs to ISO or digital files using ISO file converter.
They should shut down their entire garbage ass company instead.
Good thing I finally returned those 3 DVDs I had checked out. I had moved back in 2014 and had misplaced the DVDs, was using the streaming service instead of the DVDs, so I hadn't really bothered to search for them, and then I just happened to spot them while going through some stuff and slipped them into the mail.
At one point Redbox had made overtures to Netflix about buying their dvd by mail service. I guess this isn’t going to happen.
I mean during Covid, with no theatrical movie releases, the newest DVD for Redbox for 6 months was Sonic the Hedgehog. I used Redbox weekly but after that period I just stopped.
People have been asking this since they announced the end of DVDs and Netflix is yet to address it so it feels like they're probably gonna go to waste, fingers crossed that Netflix can get a bigger write off by donating them than burning them though lol
I remember when they tried to spin off this service several years ago, to "Quicky" or something like that, and there was so much backlash that Netflix backpedaled. Shows how much times have changed
They named their DVD service "Qwikster" at that time. Obviously it was a terrible idea and had to rebrand.
Not even rebrand, they just didn't do it.
Im sure they still did more or less whatever they were trying to do internally. What they wanted was Netflix to be synonymous with streaming. What they didn't realize is that it already was.
Funny enough it's possible the Qwickster rebrand might have created a more effective company and it wouldn't be shutting down. Although more likely it would have been confusing and floundered.
TIL Netflix does DVDs
That’s how they started out. In 2007 I had the seven-at-a-time package because my wife and I would watch a movie a night. Shipping took 3-4 days, so by the time I got to number 7, I’d have only had it for 3 or four days before it went straight back into the mailbox.
It was a different time. As fast as things were starting to go, in retrospect it was all still pretty slow.
I used to use it in college! we rented probably 1 movie every 1 or 2 months ever, idk if it was even worth the subscription price, but it was a lot of fun. I think they already had the streaming service then, so I was using it for that too maybe? Not too sure tbh, but I def remember using it for dvd rentals.
And yeah it was so so so convenient, the envelope was its own return envelope because it was sticky in 2 places and opened super easily. I remember being really impressed by the engineering/design.
Let's get rid of everything after the word down?
my in-laws are still subscribers
That's bad new. I rent a lot of DVDs and copy dvd to computer.
TIL Netflix does DVDs