Netflix, to the world’s surprise, has announced that it will stop posting DVDs to subscribers — with everyone assuming they had done this years ago.
The final discs sent from DVD.com will be sent on 29 September of 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,” said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos.
“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.
Netflix shipped more than 5.2 billion DVDs from its DVD.com service over the years to its 40 million subscribers. The first DVD shipped was Beetlejuice, though the most popular title was The Blind Side.
Remarkably, the DVD posting business still accounted for US$126 million (AU$187 million) of Netflix’s AU$31.6 billion (AU$47 billion) in revenue last year.
However, with the business facing growing competition from rivals sich as Apple, it launched a cheaper ad-supported pricing tier and has redoubled its crackdown on password sharing outside of homes.
Plus, with Netflix’s ad-supported tier not quite cutting the mustard yet, with Omnicom’s chief investment officer telling B&T that the business was “building the car as they drive it” and its “lean” movie offering for this year, it seems as though the company will need all hands on deck — rather than in the post box.
