Summary
- Netflix bids farewell to its DVD rental era with a nostalgic video, marking the end of an era that started in 1998 as a DVD rent-by-mail service.
- The video showcases the process of packaging and shipping red-enveloped DVDs, along with visuals from Netflix’s former website before it became a streaming giant.
- Despite the DVD option’s phasing out, Netflix remains the industry leader with over 238 million subscribers worldwide, contributing to the rise of various streaming platforms.
Netflix gets nostalgic over their DVD rental era of yesteryear as they mail out their final red envelopes. Now a streaming giant, Netflix kick-started in 1998 as a DVD rent-by-mail service. At the time of its inception, Netflix subscribers could request a DVD that would be mailed to their homes and then send the DVD back to the company before requesting a new DVD.
Now, Netflix celebrates the end of DVD rentals through a new video. The video details the process of the red-enveloped DVDs being packaged, shipped, and mailed out to users.
The video is a nostalgia trip as it shows images of DVDs alongside snippets of Netflix’s former website before becoming a streaming giant. The video ends with a “Farewell to the era when Netflix came in the mail,” as the last DVD was shipped out from Netflix on September 29, 2023.
How Netflix Has Evolved Over Time
Though DVDs have often been considered obsolete, it took Netflix until now to phase out the DVD option. Netflix launched its streaming service in early 2007, subsequently causing many users to switch to that platform as more titles became instantly available. Despite this shift, however, Netflix still offered its DVD subscription service for a decade and a half.
As a streaming service, Netflix has become the streaming leader of the industry, boasting numerous popular shows, including Wednesday, Stranger Things, and Sex Education. Though Netflix has previously reported subscriber loss in recent years, the streaming service appears to be in recovery, and streamer remains the largest streaming service by subscribers, with over 238 million subscribers worldwide. Since its 2007 launch, Netflix’s success has given rise to copious other streaming platforms, including Hulu, Paramount+, and Disney+.
Because of this massive digital subscriber count, the phase-out of their DVD subscription model will leave Netflix functionally unchanged. Other changes, including the introduction of an ad-supported option and Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing, are far more significant for the streaming service. Even so, those who have been with the platform since the beginning may feel a twinge of wistfulness today as Netflix ships out its last red envelope.
Source: Netflix
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
