what’s the first clue that netflix doesn’t particularly care about its dvd-by-mail business anymore? nearly a decade ago, he tried to spin it off. Yes, we all remember Qwikster, the company’s 2011 plan to take the service that first put Netflix on the map, red-envelope DVD deliveries, and turn it into an independent subsidiary. but the plan was so poorly received that it was abandoned only a few months later.
In the nearly decade since the qwikster debacle, netflix has reached gargantuan heights and risen to the challenge of providing entertainment during the coronavirus, featuring slates of oscar-competing movies, hit TV shows, documentaries, and specials. comedy every year.
as for the dvd by mail business? it still exists, and is now branded “dvd.com, a netflix company”. But in the many major stories in the Hollywood and business trade press about Netflix, it’s rarely mentioned, and the company seems to treat it only as an afterthought.
the abandoned child
take what is happening right now. for much of the last month, a disclaimer was placed at the top of the dvd.com home page: “your shipment may be delayed as usps is experiencing unprecedented volume increases and limited employee availability due to covid-19 impacts. we appreciate your patience.” I recently spent nearly two weeks waiting for a record to arrive, for a new movie I really wanted to see.
But this delivery debacle hardly caught the media’s attention.
the library of older titles seems to shrink every year…
I have been a subscriber to netflix discs since 2003 and have maintained my subscription for various reasons. Netflix’s DVD library still has many old movies that are not available to stream for free. At the end of each year, I often use my Netflix subscription to catch up on releases from earlier in the year. and I find it kind of fun to go through and read my “history” tab. turns out i pulled 749 movies off netflix, and it’s fun to see what i watched in years past.
but lately, I’ve found less and less reason to continue like this. the library of older titles seems to shrink every year, and with the proliferation of streaming services, it seems like fewer new movies are hitting the disc service in a timely manner.
still 2 million strong
A cable news story last fall put the current number of Netflix email subscribers at around 2 million, compared to more than 6 million at the time Netflix first introduced streaming in 2007. At the end of the most recent quarter, Netflix had more than 195.2 million paid streaming subscribers worldwide.
Storing the discs makes sense for many people who live in rural areas and don’t have the best broadband, while some people are old fashioned, prefer physical media, but don’t want to buy dvd’s. The Wired Piece also said that Netflix made $300 million in revenue from its DVD business in 2019, compared to the $20 billion it made from streaming. Of course, many people get the discs, but let them sit on a shelf for months.
netflix had more than 195.2 million paid streaming subscribers worldwide
will netflix finally end its record service? there’s a chance he eventually will, and the motley chump argued late last year that he should. “We expect DVD subscribers to decline steadily, every quarter, forever,” CEO Reed Hastings said in that story in 2012.
Now almost a decade has passed and the disks still exist. There’s a chance that Netflix is holding on to the business for sentimental reasons since that’s how they started out. but it is also clear that it is no longer what “netflix” means. I’ll wait for now, but probably not for long.