Streaming giant, Netflix, has announced plans to shut down its Digital Video Disk rental business in the last quarter of 2023.
This was made known by the company’s co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, via the company’s website on Tuesday.
He said in his statement, “After an incredible 25-year run, we’ve decided to wind down DVD.com later this year. 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.”
Netflix opened its business in 1998 by renting out and directly delivering DVDs to customers, who then returned the disks by mail. Since its inception, the company has mailed out more than 5 billion DVD and Blu-ray rentals to subscribers across the United States.
However, the company’s branch has witnessed a decline in the past years. Figures from the company show that the rental business generated $239 million in revenue in 2020, $183 million in 2021 and $146 million last year.
On the contrary, the company’s streaming service is doing numbers in recent times despite stiff competition from other streaming giants such as Disney Plus and Paramount.
On Tuesday Netflix announced that its number of subscribers hit 232.5 million in the first quarter of this year and its nascent ad-supported tier is faring well.
Sarandos concluded his statement by expressing gratitude to members who patronised the rental service during its 25-year run.
