Back in my day, you used to have a local video store for VHS tapes and eventually those went the way of the dodo bird when Blockbuster came to town with a big store and tons of copies of movies. In the late 90’s the game changed once more with the arrival of this new company Netflix. Netflix changed the game by letting you get DVDs in the mail, there were no late fees (you paid a membership fee for the service) and you could set up a list so when you returned a movie another was sent. Today marks the end of the DVD service as Netflix will ship its final DVD today.
Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023.
But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment. pic.twitter.com/vVdjuhJvrb
— Netflix (@netflix) September 28, 2023
Netflix was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in 1997. The first disc they shipped was in 1998 as a test to Hastings house and decided to go all in with the service. Here we are 25 years later and the final DVD has been mailed. The initial model was that of the video store with a per DVD fee but they moved to the subscription model in September of 1999 and ultimately dropped the per DVD model in 2000. Netflix had delivered it billionth DVD in February of 2007.
During the life of the service, Netflix mailed over five billion DVDs to customers. The customers that have DVDs now or are receiving the final DVDs mailed today will be able to keep those DVDs from Netflix. While Netflix continues to evolve into the streaming giant it currently is as well as adding gaming and who knows what in the future. The excitement of getting that red envelope in the mail was always a thing to look forward to, whether it was to watch the movie or build out your personal collection by ripping the DVD! Will you miss the Netflix DVD service? Do you still use physical media? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on our Twitter account (X). As always stay tuned to Culture Splat for more content coming your way!
