In 1997, Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings founded Netflix, which would forever change how we watched movies. At first, subscribers could just order rental DVDs from the comfort of their own homes. That was before Netflix turned into a streaming service, which led to the downfall of companies like Blockbuster. Over the past 25 years, Netflix has continued to dominate, but now they are phasing out its DVD service.
“After an incredible 25-year run, we’ve 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 that’s going to become increasingly difficult.” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a statement yesterday.
“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.
To everyone who ever added a DVD to their queue or waited by the mailbox for a red envelope to arrive: thank you.”
Throughout its multi-decade service, Netflix has shipped more than 5.2 billion DVDs to over 40 million subscribers. Have you ever wondered what was the very first movie they packed into one of those iconic red envelopes was? It was none other than Tim Burton’s classic Beetlejuice.
You still have until September 29th to get your DVDs before Netflix ends its physical media service.
