The End Of An Era: Netflix Will No Longer Send The Red Envelope With DVDs In The Mail
AV Club - Netflix is officially killing off its DVDs-by-mail service—a.k.a. the business that Netflix was built on before it shifted over to its current streaming focus.
Netflix’s DVD service has operated under the name (and domain name) DVD.com since 2016, offering separate subscriptions from the regular streaming service with old-fashioned tiered plans based on how many discs you can get at a time, but that service will be shutting down after 25 years on September 29. DVD.com made the announcement on Twitter, thanking subscribers for their support right up to “this final season of red envelopes,” and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos shared a slightly longer statement (via The Hollywood Reporter) in which he thanked everyone “who ever added a DVD to their queue or waited by the mailbox for a red envelope to arrive.”
But this all leaves one lingering mystery: What’s going to happen to all of these DVDs? Unfortunately, we don’t know yet. The A.V. Club reached out to Netflix to find out what will happen to all of its discs once that September deadline passes, but we have yet to hear back.
Man, I feel like I'm going to be one of the sad, out of touch, overwhelmed old people. It makes me sad to think about. I was talking about this the other day- I grew up pretty much with all the technology we use today and I still get confused and overwhelmed by it. I'm 34 and I feel the technology has passed me by, and I'm an old geezer who is starting to falter and not quite understand how everything works. And with how rapidly technology moves, it won't shock me if 10 years from now I'm completely underwater with this stuff.
So I say all that to answer the question everyone was already asking- "who still uses this service?". I would bet a lot of people. There's so many god damn people in this country, and not everyone wants to stream every single thing. I think about this a lot- at some point, you just stop moving forward with technology. If you're 65 years old and living a happy farm life in Kansas, the DVD delivery system might actually be a more perfect setup than struggling to use the Wi-Fi and wireless billing and subscribing to 100 different streaming services. A red envelope in the mail so you can the old lady can pop some popcorn and take in a flick is sometimes all you need in life to make you happy. And if this paragraph sounds like a cry for help, it's probably because it is. The simple life sounds so much better.
Advertisement
You know? Before we were glued to our phones, before 10 different social media apps, before life got so complicated...it all sounds so nice. Time was slower. Bonds were stronger with friends and family. Not everything was a race to get the most views or the most likes or this and that. I'm obviously worse at this job at Barstool because this is my way of thinking, but the idea of being alive on this Earth and wasting it doing Tik Tok dances or pandering to the mass audience because all you care about are internet points...that just stinks in my opinion.
So what's my point? Every time a technology moves forward, we are losing part of our past. And usually that's a good thing, don't get me wrong. I love advancements of technology...but when it's a technology that I remember being CREATED TOO...that's where it stings. I remember when my dad signed us up for the original Netflix where we would make a queue and wait for the movies to come in the mail. I would guess our family was like...in the first .1% of people to use Netflix. And now the red envelope is going bye bye. Getting old, man, it's wild. There's people who lived through the Wright Brothers getting a plane off the ground for the first time to a fucking spaceship taking humans to the moon.
I guess in conclusion, it blows my mind how quickly things can change. Take care. Be safe. Gosh bless. Namaste.