Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Netflix DVDs are going the way of the CRT.

R

romanof

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 13, 2020
371
390
Texas
After years of enjoying Netflix DVDs, I guess I am about to give up and cancel the service. Back when I started, hard copies were the only movies we could get way out here in the sticks with no broadband. Even now, with a high speed link, I still prefer them.

But, it appears that Netflix is allowing that side of their business to naturally run itself out. I understand why, but from their business reports, they are still making billions on the plastic. My complaint is that I have DVDs in my saved folder with issue dates that are unknown but have long been on the Walmart $3.99 table, not to mention at the local pawn shop with most of them at $.99.

What the heck. All good things have to end, I guess.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dorsal and compwiz1202
romanof said:
I understand why, but from their business reports, they are still making billions on the plastic.
Click to expand...
You are incorrect.

I don't know what "business reports" [sic] you are reading, but they certainly aren't based on Netflix's SEC filings.

Here's a relevant quote from their last SEC filing:

"Total U.S. revenues, inclusive of DVD revenues not reported in the tables above, were $2.7 billion and $5.2 billion, respectively, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, and $2.4 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019. DVD revenues were $62 million and $126 million, respectively, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2020, and $76 million and $157 million, respectively, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2019."
Click to expand...

They made $62 million in DVD revenues in the quarter ending June 30, 2020. That's two percent of their total $2.7 billion revenue.

Source: Netflix investor relations page with SEC filings

If you have better sources than Netflix's own SEC-submitted numbers, please feel free to post those sources here for peer review.
 
I can't remember the last time I watched a dvd, some things are bound to go the way of the dodo bird.
 
romanof said:
After years of enjoying Netflix DVDs, I guess I am about to give up and cancel the service. Back when I started, hard copies were the only movies we could get way out here in the sticks with no broadband. Even now, with a high speed link, I still prefer them.

But, it appears that Netflix is allowing that side of their business to naturally run itself out. I understand why, but from their business reports, they are still making billions on the plastic. My complaint is that I have DVDs in my saved folder with issue dates that are unknown but have long been on the Walmart $3.99 table, not to mention at the local pawn shop with most of them at $.99.

What the heck. All good things have to end, I guess.
Click to expand...
DVDs represent the most economical video rental scheme still out there. Netflix per an article I looked at has 2 million customers using that service. Still got Redbox machines all over too. For as much as you would think DVD is outmoded, they still have a huge number of media titles available. You keep seeing the comments it a has been, but you see drugstores, grocery stores, membership stores selling them. You're observation on how cheap some of this media is at Walmart, feeds into the necessity of still using DVD rental services. Yes Walmart seems to know how much of these are sold each year especially when families are stuck in their homes a lot.

Will it ever truly die, probably not because its very cheap entertainment for people that don't really care about streaming, fast internet especially in rural areas.

related Why Are 2 Million People Still Getting Netflix DVDs by Mail? - Wired
 
romanof said:
After years of enjoying Netflix DVDs, I guess I am about to give up and cancel the service. Back when I started, hard copies were the only movies we could get way out here in the sticks with no broadband. Even now, with a high speed link, I still prefer them.

But, it appears that Netflix is allowing that side of their business to naturally run itself out. I understand why, but from their business reports, they are still making billions on the plastic. My complaint is that I have DVDs in my saved folder with issue dates that are unknown but have long been on the Walmart $3.99 table, not to mention at the local pawn shop with most of them at $.99.

What the heck. All good things have to end, I guess.
Click to expand...

Ya, but business comes first where the money is.. You can't just kill off for the good of something better, . It seems people still prefer using DVD rentals.. and if Netflix make even a small % of that , why should they loose it ? More customers if they keep it...

Meanwhile, you may already know not everything is on streaming services, yet they are on DVD.... If Netflix thew in the towel, customers would be lost.

Until all movies can be streamed.. DVD's will have to stay i think..
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: max2
Scepticalscribe said:
Well then, it would seem that some of us still breed dodos, for I still watch DVDs, and purchase CDs.
Click to expand...
I started going back to physical media a few years ago, although, I put my movies, TV shows, and music on a media servers using Plex and run my own personal "Netflix".

Physical media is might be at the end of its life, but I have purchased more in the past two years than I ever have before.

I am unsure of what made me switch back to physical media, maybe due my habits of rewatching my favorite movies and shows, and not being able to find them streaming on the services I subscribe to.


Scepticalscribe said:
I loathe the rentier model of music (or movie) consumption.
Click to expand...

It isn't just a matter of purchasing versus rental either, Apple regularly removes access to users purchased movies and TV shows on iTunes. People think if they bought something on iTunes, that it is theirs forever to stream, and that isn't true.

Buying digital copies of streamed content is just a long-term rental.


Digital content in general as started to sour on me, and not just with movies and TV shows.

There has been many iOS games that are no longer able to be played due to various reasons, like being 32-bit, broken and not updated, removed from the app stores, etc. I have physical video games that still play great after 40 years.

With digital content, nothing is safe. A while back, there was a popular game in the iOS App Store that the developer secretly hid a kill-timer in an update, basically removing access to the game at a particular date even if you already downloaded it.


romanof said:
But, it appears that Netflix is allowing that side of their business to naturally run itself out.
Click to expand...
I would subscribe to Netflix's DVD and Blu Ray rental service for a few months to catch up on shows, then cancel for about a year.

The problem I now have with their service is the distribution facility that runs the disc service is no longer located in my state. I noticed that the turn around times increased a lot when I last subscribed. I called their customer service, and they told me about the closing of the distribution facility in my state, saying that there was nothing they could do.

With the cost of the service, it would be much cheaper for me to use stuff like Redbox, as the turn around times would totally depend on me. The problem with Redbox is that older titles are much harder to find.
 
I figure if it's good enough for me to want to buy, then it's good enough to buy the physical media it's on. If there is an additional digital copy allowed I take that too, but having a physical item means no service can remove my purchase.

Additionally, hard drives and digital storage media (SSDs, USB sticks, etc) can fail.

We aren't really movie at home watchers. Back when you could run to Blockbuster things were better. We do use Redbox from time to time, but it's very infrequent and mainly for movies we'd like to see but have no interest in owning.

My problem is that my wife still owns many VHS copies of things. Fortunately, at some point we bought a DVD/VHS device, but try and find one of those in a store now. If DVD is going, VHS is long dead. For myself, I still have a bunch of stuff sitting around on VHS too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: max2
I had the DVD subscription for a long time, then switch to the streaming. What i miss is the content on the service is different. Some movies were not available on one but available on the other. Finally gave up and stuck to streaming along with Apple TV+.
 
You want to watch all the Avengers movies? Westworld? GoT? Disney? Pixar? Many of the big TV shows? It's all still available on Netflix DVD. So you have to wait on the mail. It saves a lot on streaming subscription fees.
 
I never liked them because the turnaround was so long. Definitely canned them once they split physical and streaming subs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back