Netflix, which started as a company that shipped DVDs by mail, is winding down its DVD business. It will ship its final discs from DVD.com on September 29th, the company announced on Tuesday.
“After an incredible 25 year run, we’ve decided to wind down DVD.com later this year,” Netflix said in a blog post. “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.”
The company acquired the DVD.com domain in March 2012, which was just a few months after it reversed an ill-conceived plan to spin off its DVDs by mail business into a separate entity called Qwikster. Netflix says the first DVD it ever shipped was a copy of Beetlejuice on March 10th, 1998, and that it has shipped more than 5.2 billion DVDs total. The most popular movie? The Blind Side.
Netflix announced the news shortly ahead of its first quarter 2023 earnings.