Netflix to End DVD-By-Mail Service

Netflix will discontinue its service of renting DVDs by mail, the company announced in an earnings report on Tuesday.

“Our goal has always been to provide the best service for our members but as the DVD business continues to shrink that’s going to become increasingly hard,” reads the release, which notes that Netflix shipped over 5 billion discs since its launch in 1999.

“DVD paved the way for streaming, ensuring that so much of what we started will continue long into the future,” the report continued. “We feel so privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD members for so long.”

The service, which costs $9.99 per month for one disc at a time, $14.99 for two, or $19.99 for up to three, will end Sept. 29.

Some subscribers told The Washington Post that they were sad to see the service go, noting their appreciation for the special features that aren’t available on streaming services, as well as the larger selection pool for foreign or classic films.

“There are titles you can’t find elsewhere. Their library was just huge compared to any sort of streaming option,” said Ann Silverthorn, a retired technology writer who has used the service since 2009. “I really enjoyed being able see the trailers at the beginning of each disc. I would get so many ideas of new old movies that I might like to see and I’d write them down and sure enough, they’d be in their catalog.”

Jeanine Wainscott told the Post that she’s a stay-at-home mother who found it easier to rent movies and TV shows by mail than to rely on the spotty internet service in her rural Washington town.

“I signed up for it on my own as soon as I moved out of my parents’ house. I barely remember when there wasn’t Netflix,” said Wainscott. “Just getting better internet is not an option, and that’s a reality for a lot of people. People who live in big cities don’t always realize that.”