Although it’s easy to forget, Netflix was originally a mail-order DVD rental service—and that business still exists, at least for a few more weeks. Back in April,
the streaming giant
announced that it would be shutting down DVD.com on September 29, 2023, after 25 years of mailing discs in red envelopes. But what subscribers remain have just received some happy news.
“We’ve decided to wind down DVD.com later this year,” wrote Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, in the shutdown announcement. “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.” He said that the final discs would be shipped at the end of September.
But those discs? Customers
will
get to keep them—for
free
. On X, the site formerly known as
Twitter
, the official
DVD Netflix account confirmed
that subscribers would be able to keep any DVDs they still had after the service shuts down. “We are not charging for any unreturned discs after 9/29,” the service posted. “Please enjoy your final shipments as long as you like!”
And this is coupled with an offer to send subscribers a bumper final shipment of DVDs from their queues.
As reported by Collider last week
,
subscribers who opt-in
will get up to 10 random DVDs from their queue, not matter what plan they’re on. Supplies are limited and it’s a random selection so, presumably, you shouldn’t expect to end up with all three extended editions of
The Lord of the Rings,
Titanic
,
or other ridiculously popular movies. But still, free DVDs!
If you receive any discs you really don’t want to keep, Netflix will
accept returns
until October 27, so you don’t need to have that copy of
Daddy Day Care
cluttering up your house.
Of course, no storage medium lasts forever, so customers won’t be able to enjoy their final shipments for eternity—but they should last a while. With perfect storage and handling conditions, DVDs have an expected lifespan of
as long as 100 years
, though estimates
vary
. Given that these discs are coming second-hand from Netflix, they could be quite pre-loved. Still, even though Netflix is shutting down, its DVDs are going to stick around for a long time.
While this is definitely a great send-off for existing subscribers, it’s still sad to see Netflix’s original business shutdown. According to the announcement, the service shipped more than 5.2 billion DVDs to 40 million unique subscribers over its lifetime. Those numbers pale in comparison to the
billions of hours of content
that the more than
230 million global Netflix subscribers
watch
every month, which really shows how successful the pivot to streaming was for the company.
Now though, subscribers are waiting for their red envelopes one last time. Once they’re sent, Netflix will be a streaming-only company.
