Netflix closes, but not in the sense that it fails. In the sense that gives a cut to his past, metaphorical and concreteand after 25 years it closed its DVD rental division.
That’s right: although not many people remember it by now, the company that helped shut down Blockbuster and its videotape and DVD rental service started out with DVD rentals. And now he closes his DVD rental service. Which didn’t happen in stores but by mail.
Cloud gaming With the new Game Controller app, Netflix also starts streaming Emanuele Capone’s video games 14 August 2023
twitter: Netflix’s latest DVD announcement
By the way, a happy clarification in response to all the news headlines out there:
We are not charging for any unreturned discs after 9/29. Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like! ?? https://t.co/lpSJHq29ZX
— DVD Netflix (@dvdnetflix) August 22, 2023
Netflix DVD, the latest gifts to (few) customers
In a sort of law of hi-tech retaliationthe Los Gatos company had already confirmed these intentions last April, announcing that September 29th would be (and at this point it will be) on the last day of operationand now given further details, via email and with a post on Twitter.
With a message sent in mid-August to subscribers to the DVD rental service by mail (which are now very few and represent less than 0.5% of Netflix’s revenue), the company explained that will send 10 films to anyone who signs up for the initiative on dvd.com. The site is not accessible from Italy, but it is still worth a look, also for the care with which the error page has been created: “After 25 years of films sent by mail, we are nearing the end of our last season – reads the email sent to customers – We really appreciate that you are sharing movie nights with us until the last day” and then “let’s have some fun with a grand finale!”.
Movies will come shipped free of charge and above all they will remain in the hands of those who receive them (only in the United States): the latest news is that Netflix does not expect these DVDs to be returned, contrary to previously announced. Yesterday, with a twitter on Twitter, the company explained that “we will not charge no fee for discs not returned after September 29th: enjoy these latest mailings for as long as you like!”.
reddit: a copy of the email sent by Netflix
The origins of Netflix, between myth and legend
The group of 10 films that will be given away to American customers who request them will be chosen based on those present in the Coda of each one, which works(goes) like My list as for the streaming channel and was somehow an ancestor of it.
Netflix, which was founded in August 1997, began operating as a video rental company in April 1998. As often happens in these cases, the origins are somewhat shrouded in myth: legend has it that Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph, the two founders, were great admirers of Amazon and wanted to replicate its success by finding something to sell online and then send to people. And seen that the dying videotapes were considered too sensitive and that CDs and DVDs were spreading, they tried to send some to each other’s houses, they realized that it worked and that the disc arrived whole. And so they started the business, apparently with just 30 employees and 925 DVDs and rates and deadlines similar to those of Blockbuster.
It was a success, started (another legend?) shipping Beetlejuice as the first film and also favored by the vastness of the American market: at the height of its video rental career, Netflix shipped about 900 million DVDs a year, handling over 1% of all US mail. A success also favored by the ease of operations, with the films that came with an extra envelope for the return, already stampedand from the indulgence towards latecomers, But in any case it was a success not destined to last, in the same intentions of the company that had allowed it: as soon as it was possible by technology and broadband connections, Netflix threw itself decisively in streaming, already starting in January 2007. And the rest, as they say, is history.
A young Reed Hastings in a 2002 photo in a cart of DVDs ready to be shipped to the company’s San Jose headquarters
google maps: the home of the last Blockbuster
instagram: the commercial of the latest Blockbuster
The case You shall have no other apple but me: Apple takes Swiss fruit producers to court by Bruno Ruffilli June 20, 2023
From the end of Blockbuster to the end of DVDs?
A story that has left at least one excellent victim in the field and runs the risk of making another one. The first is obviously Blockbuster, which for almost 30 years, starting in the mid-eighties and until its bankruptcy in 2013, deluded itself into being untouchable.
Strong of almost 85,000 employees and over 9,000 stores between the United States and Europe, the Dallas company was not good enough, far-sighted and lucky enough to understand where the market was going and that what appeared to be an innocuous competitor (Netflix, in fact) would have eliminated it within of 5-6 years. To then remember it with a series that by many was considered an insult rather than a tributealso thanks to the fact that it’s not that it turned out very well.
There is one last Blockbuster in the world today, which goes by this name even though it obviously no longer belongs to Blockbuster: he’s in Bendin the US state of Oregon, is still operational, was also briefly on Airbnb and last February he released an amusing post-apocalyptic commercial on the occasion of the American football Super Bowl: “When the world comes to an end and the Internet no longer works, we will still be here. The last Blockbuster in the world will rent movies until the end of time.”
Always that DVD movies still exist, of course. Yes, because the other victim of Netflix, about ten years after the first one, could be Digital Versatile Discs (or Digital Video Discs, if you prefer) and with them Blu-rays: on the US market, which is by far the largest, sales of these records total around $6.5 billion a year, which sounds like a lot but it’s less than half than they were 5 years ago. Already today, still in the States, the dimensions of the digital entertainment business are about 10 times larger than those of physical media.
This move by Netflix, which also has a symbolic value, adds to the fact that by now even video games are bought more and more online (on the various stores for Xbox, PlayStation, PC) and loved ones special movie content (one of the reasons why DVDs were bought) are included in some streaming platforms, such as Disney Plus. And it could be the last, definitive nail in the coffin of a medium that also brings with it numerous problems in terms of production, packaging and distribution. AND pollution and disposal, too.
@capoema