Netflix will finally give up DVD rentals after 25 years
Netflix is preparing to close one of its businesses this fall. It’s about DVD rentals (ie DVD.com). This was reported by Engadget.
The company will send the last discs with films on September 29. It launched such a service 25 years ago, sending the movie Beetlejuice in 1998. Since then, more than 40 million customers have enjoyed about 5.2 billion Netflix movie discs.
The decision to abandon this service was influenced by the decrease in demand for physical rental. Financial aspects also played a role in this situation. Netflix’s earnings in the first quarter were lower than last year. At the same time, the number of subscribers increased relatively modestly – the company received 1.7 million new users. The closing of the DVD delivery division is expected to help the company.
As you know, Netflix has been streaming video on demand since 2007. In two years, this business has become the most popular offer of the company. According to VideoScan/MediaPlayNews, the disc market has been in a steady decline for a long time. In the period from 2021 to 2022, sales decreased by 19%.
Now Netflix is looking for new areas of development, in particular, the service recently created an anime that uses artificial intelligence systems to draw backgrounds, which angered the artists. In its tweet Netflix’s Japanese division said that the short film The Dog & The Boy, uses art created by artificial intelligence due to the labor shortage in the anime industry.