Netflix is to "wind down" its DVD rental service later this year after 25 years, the company's co-chief executive Ted Sarandos has announced. Mr Sarandos said that due to struggling growth, the streaming giant would be shipping its final discs on September 29.
In a blog post titled "Netflix DVD - The Final Season", he hailed the "iconic red envelopes" as having "paved the way" for the shift to streaming. Last year Netflix announced a cheaper ad-supported subscription tier and began attempts to clamp down on customers sharing accounts with other households. Its DVD service allows customers to rent films online and have them sent to their homes for viewing.
"After an incredible 25-year run, we've decided to wind down DVD.com later this year," Mr Sarandos wrote in a post on Tuesday. "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. So we want to go out on a high, and will be shipping our final discs on September 29, 2023."
He continued: "Those iconic red envelopes changed the way people watched shows and movies at home - and they paved the way for the shift to streaming. We feel so privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD members for so long, so proud of what our employees achieved and excited to continue pleasing entertainment fans for many more decades to come. To everyone who ever added a DVD to their queue or waited by the mailbox for a red envelope to arrive: thank you."
