![]() ![]() ![]() Ultimately, while the end of Netflix’s DVD division is the end of a defining era in the entertainment business, the writing has been on the wall for years. And it proved to be game-changing for the way entertainment was consumed, even if some hardcore fans continued to use the DVD service for those hard-to-stream titles. Streaming, it turns out, could grow a lot faster than the DVD business, which relied on old-fashioned infrastructure like warehouses, DVD inventory and mail service to function. Customers revolted, and the DVD service stuck around as part of the main Netflix service (ultimately, however, the streaming plans and DVD plans diverged). The DVD business was also the subject of one of the most infamous moments in Netflix’s history: When it said it would spin off its DVD service as a new company called Qwikster, separating its streaming and DVD offerings. Both the subscription model and the recommendation engine forged by Netflix’s DVD effort underpin its streaming business today. But it was Netflix’s shift to a subscription model that turbocharged its growth, and it was quick to adopt algorithmic recommendations to help users identify what to rent next. The DVD division has shrunk over the years (it had $146 million in revenue in 2022, and $183 million in revenue in 2021, down from $239 million in 2020, and in Q1 of this year it took in $32 million, suggesting a further fall). Soon, Netflix’s red envelopes were everywhere, and Blockbuster, the dominant DVD rental company of the era, was on the ropes. Years before it ever streamed TV shows or movies, Netflix launched with a simple idea: Replace the outmoded DVD rental experience by delivering DVDs to customers and letting them mail them back when they were done (the first DVD it shipped was a copy of Beetlejuice, per the company). Netflix's 'The King Who Never Was' Director on Reconstructing the Events of a Scandal in 1970s Italy ![]()
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