Netflix to end its DVD business by sending users anywhere from 0 to 10 random discs
The streaming giant announced that it was officially ending its DVD rental service September 29
Let’s all join together in a moment of silence for Netflix’s DVD rental service—1998-2023. The red envelope killed Blockbuster, and Netflix is now killing the red envelope. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust—or, in words perhaps more appropriate for everything good about physical media, what is dead may never die.
Netflix may be able to end the subscription service that put them on the map (called DVD.com since 2016) for good—a move they announced to the program’s last few stragglers back in April—but they obviously couldn’t just wave a magic wand and disappear the actual, very large DVD collection with the same ease as they could poof a streaming original like, say, Arrested Development out of existence. (Another point for real, handheld media.)
While fans—and The A.V. Club—wondered what would become of the veritable Library of Alexandra possessed by the streaming giant (once numbering over 100,000 titles, according to Paste), execs were busy brewing up a really goofy solution.
This week, Collider reported that lingering subscribers to one of DVD.com’s tiered plans received an email in their inbox. “After 25 years of movies in the mail, we’re approaching the end of our final season,” it began. “We really appreciate that you’re sharing movie nights with us until the last day. Let’s have some fun for our finale!”
The “fun,” apparently, is in seeing if you actually get to have any fun at all. Starting now, subscribers can opt in to (potentially) join a massive giveaway: up to 10 bonus discs, chosen from your existing queue, could (again, potentially) be shipped straight to your mailbox on September 29, the service’s final day. And that would be pretty cool, right? Potentially!
As the email continues: “You won’t know if any extra envelopes are headed your way until they arrive in your mailbox!” So, some people will be left waiting in vain to receive a DVD—any DVD—that just… never… comes. We guess they really are trying to send out the service with all the drama of some of the more maudlin tear-jerkers in its collection. As it deserves.