Believe it or not, Netflix has continued to mail DVD rentals to customers, even though streaming became the company’s main revenue driver more than a decade ago. However, all things must come to an end, and the streamer is ending its DVD-mailed-in-a-red-envelope service this September.
Netflix says it will ship its last DVD on September 29, 2023. Disc returns will be accepted through October 27. The business has faded in the past decade from $900+ million in revenue in 2013 to under $150 million in 2022.
The company offers a tool to allow DVD subscribers to download their rental history:
Many of our members have years of movie-watching memories with DVD Netflix, so we are providing a downloadable PDF copy of your data with information about your queue, rental history, ratings, and reviews in our Data Download.
At any time up until Oct 27, 2023 a current DVD subscriber or former DVD customer whose DVD subscription was canceled within the past 9 months may download their data, via our Data Download (https://dvd.netflix.com/Download), which includes:
- Your queue
- Your rental history
- Your ratings
- Your reviews
“Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members, but as the business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly difficult,” co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos said in a blog post titled “Netflix DVD — The Final Season.”
“Making 2023 our Final Season allows us to maintain our quality of service through the last day and go out on a high note,” says the company.
Netflix is also increasing streaming resolution from 720p to 1080p on its new $6.99 per month ad-supported plan. Subscribers can now access 1080p video and two simultaneous streams.
