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When will Netflix stop shipping DVDs?

Answer: Wait, Netflix was still shipping DVDs?

Closeup of the Netflix logo on a red background.
Remember when Netflix first started in the late ’90s by offering a subscription service to ship DVDs to people’s homes? For a monthly fee you could get a set number of discs sent to you in a red envelope along with a return label. When you were done watching it, you just popped it in the mail and then Netflix would send your next choice.

If you thought that Netflix had long since abandoned this DVD-in-the-mail model once Internet streaming took off, you're not alone. But it turns out that Netflix never abandoned this mode of operating all this time — until now. The company on Wednesday reminded us that it does still mail DVDs to customers by announcing that it will be discontinuing the service.

Sept. 29, 2023, will be the last day that you can get a DVD in the mail from Netflix. “Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members, but as the DVD business continues to shrink, that’s going to become increasingly hard,” Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a letter to shareholders.

The company shared some fun stats about its DVD program as part of the announcement. Beetlejuice was the first DVD it ever shipped out, on March 10, 1998, and the most popular DVD was The Blind Side. Over the course of its 25-year run, Netflix’s DVD service sent out more than 5.2 billion DVDs to about 40 million subscribers.
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