Netflix Will End DVD Rental Service After 25 Years

Netflix ends the DVD rental business. (photo: Twitter netflix)

JAKATRTA - Since its founding more than a quarter of a century ago, Netflix has sent order DVDes to people's homes in a number of places. However, this will eventually end as the company will ship its last DVD this week - which experts call the 'end of an era'.

The last five distribution centers in California, Texas, Georgia and New Jersey will send last orders to DVD subscription customers today. Fortunately, if you are one of the Netflix subscribers who prefer streaming services, you don't have to worry about this change.

Meanwhile, if you are one of those waiting for one of Netflix's last DVDes, when you're done with the DVD, you'll be able to save it as a memento, Netflix said.

The billion-dollar company announced in April that it would end its DVD rental business as it continues to shrink due to the popularity of online video streaming.

In 2011, the Netflix DVD rental business had 14 million subscribers, but this number fell to just two million in 2019 and 1.5 million last year.

Netflix DVD rentals accounted for 126 million US dollars (approximately IDR 1.8 trillion) from the company's total revenue of 31.6 billion US dollars (approximately IDR 451 trillion) last year - only 0.4 percent of the total revenue.

In a blog post entitled 'Netflix DVD - Season Terakhir,' Managing Director of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, said: "Our goal is always to provide the best service for our members. But as business changes get smaller, it will get more difficult, so we want to end well, and will deliver our last DVD on September 29, 2023."

Long Live the Red Envelope! pic.twitter.com/Ccceu0Hxs5

— Netflix (@netflix) September 29, 2023

Long Live the Red Envelope! pic.twitter.com/CCeu0Hxs5

"The iconic red envelope has changed the way people watch events and movies at home - and they paved the way for the switch to streaming services," he added, quoted by MailOnline.

Netflix's official account also posted a picture with the message 'Obviously it will always be part of our DNA.'

Fewer than a million subscribers who still subscribe to DVD services will be able to save the last DVD to arrive in their ballot boxes - although it will most likely have a high value on eBay in the coming years.

"That's very disappointing," Netflix loyal DVD customer Amanda Konkle told the Associated Press, as she waited for her last DVD, The Nightcomers, a 1971 British horror film starring Marlon Brando.

"Ini membuat saya merasa nostalgia - mendapatkan DVD ini telah menjadi bagian dari rutinitas saya selama beberapa dekade," ungkapnya.

James Bore, a technology expert at the Bores Group consultant, regrets the Netflix DVD business bankruptcy as "the end of an era."

Bore admits that "physical media in general seems to be struggling" - not only DVD, but also game consoles that don't use disks.

Stores in England like John Lewis have stopped selling DVD players in their stores, although Blu-ray players are still around.

"We are, or maybe enough, turning to a world where all media are temporary and can be removed or changed by streaming companies," Bore told MailOnline. "It's not even that we rent our media - we lease access to the media. Everything happened quickly, and we've never had the necessary talks about it."

He also admitted he was surprised that Netflix ended the DVD business when the business was still profitable, rather than "selling it to someone or continuing to run it."

The Netflix DVD service - which has been available in several countries of North and South America but never in Europe - is an integral part of the company's early history.