aleema cassidy bethyll
Crispina Blomker
By 2005, Netflix was mailing 1 million discs daily, which, if stacked, would've equaled the size of three Eiffel Towers. The most shipped discs in a single day came in 2011, with 4.9 million. By the time the DVD mailing service ended, Netflix had shipped over 5 billion discs. Netflix also revealed that the only time the service ever used a non-red envelope for a mailer was to commemorate the release of Shrek 2 in 2004, turning the packaging green.
"On April 14th, 1998, a dozen of us working out of an old bank building with dirty green carpet mailed out the first Netflix DVD. Later this week, a similar size team will mail the last," he posted to X.
"We envisioned the DVD service to be the booster rocket that would put our longer-term business into orbit. But miraculously, the booster achieved an orbit of its own. And only now, its work finally done, will it drift quietly back to earth."
When Randolph and Reed Hastings launched Netflix in 1997, the transition to streaming was still a decade away. The mail-order DVD service started with 30 employees and less than 1,000 movies. The idea took a while to get off the ground, but as the popularity of DVDs rose, so did Netflix's business.
Netflix launched its "Watch Now" streaming service in 2007, allowing members to watch a limited number of films online as part of their subscription. Although the choice was small to begin with, by 2010 Netflix had 7,000 movies available to stream, along with over 500 TV series, with online views outpacing DVD rentals.
In a statement announcing the closure of its DVD rental service in April, Netflix said: "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.
"We feel so privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD members for so long, so proud of what our employees achieved and excited to continue pleasing entertainment fans for many more decades to come."
Netflix currently has over 238 million subscribers worldwide, with over 17,000 titles available to watch. These include the streamer's original content, with hits including Stranger Things, The Crown and The Witcher.
However, an exclusive poll conducted by Redfield and Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek found that 52 percent of users said they would "boycott" the service if it created content that they disagreed with, with "political content" subscribers' biggest bugbear.
Sophie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in Lincoln, UK. Her focus is reporting on film and TV, trending news and the entertainment industry. She has covered pop culture, women's rights and the arts extensively. Sophie joined Newsweek in 2022 from Social Change UK, and has previously written for The Untitled Magazine, The Mary Sue, Ms. Magazine and Screen Rant. She graduated with a BA Honours in Fine Art from Birmingham City University and has an MA in Arts Journalism from the University of Lincoln. Languages: English.
Red Netflix envelopes sit in a bin of mail at the U.S. Post Office sort center March 30, 2010 in San Francisco, California. The company is ending its DVD mailing service with a promotion. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images hide caption
"Netflix is doing everything that they can to help people watch as many films that are in their queue as possible before the shutdown," said Long, a self-described film buff in North Carolina who told NPR there are 500 movies in his queue right now.
An FAQ section on Netflix's website states the company will accept returns through Oct. 27. But Netflix's promotional email doesn't explicitly tell customers what to do with those discs. This is causing confusion among customers, and debate among the members of online communities like Reddit.
"It appeared to me that at the end of their time shipping these DVDs out that they're yours to keep," North Carolina-based Netflix DVD subscriber Leslie Lowdermilk told NPR. "Because after all, what are they gonna do with them?"
"The filmmakers and property rights owners give Netflix a license, and then they can sub-license it to their subscribers," Spiller said. "But they can't give anybody ownership. They don't have it themselves."
"They really should have made it clear whether this was a rental and what the return period is, versus whether people were getting to hold onto these things," Gerbi said. "I do hope that perhaps they could find a way to get them into viewers' hands permanently, or maybe get them into libraries or someplace where they're not just going to waste."
Recently moved home. Thought all was great. During the move as I expected my netflix was suspended. Now after use WhatsApp and a phone call to customer care. I still can't get my netflix back. That is included in my package. Was passed to "it team" over 7 days ago and nothing. From what I have read I need a new activation email.... please someone give me a way to sort this out!
Good luck with that, I extended my contract which cancelled my Netflix and added it back. Still waiting for the activation mail over 2 weeks later and multiple phone calls and raised tickets! Still waiting for 2 calls from managers and despite asking for escalation and a complaint to be raised still waiting.
Sorry to hear you have been having an ongoing issue with your Netflix since moving home. We can understand the frustration caused and we want to do our best to help. To best look into this, I am sending a private message. Please keep an eye out for an envelope at the top right corner of your Forum page. Let me know if you have any issues locating this.
Janet finds an envelope full of cash in the store between a couple of bags of dog food, which makes me think this was a setup for a JFL Gags bit but whatevs. She drops the envelope splitting the cash as Umma catches her. She then counts the money and it comes to a grand total of $210.
Later on, Umma is seen asking every customer if they lost the money, even disclosing how much. So far, no one has claimed it as their own (except Janet, of course) who lectures Umma for being too trusting and naive.
A customer overhears them and asks about the money, saying that she thought she left it on the subway but just remembered that she was in the store recently. Janet is obviously suspicious and asks her how much money was in the envelope that she was missing.
Gerald later finds a $50 bill in the store, around where Janet had dropped the envelope, and he shows it to her. And if you're following that math correctly, that does indeed come to $260, just as the woman said.
The next day, Janet arrives at the store to find that the woman is back but Umma is giving her a hard time at the checkout. You see, Umma is usually good at detecting liars so she's feeling rather duped by this alleged scammer.
The gig is up and Janet is forced to eat crow and explain the so-called misunderstanding. Watching Janet dance around a lie she creates is the most uncomfortable, albeit entertaining, thing to watch. So if you like seeing Janet dig herself deeper into a web of lies, you're gonna LOVE next week's episode!
Anyway, when they go to the petty cash box to retrieve the envelope, it's gone (more on that later). So, Umma and Janet are forced to give the woman what is rightfully owed to her: $260 and an apology.
Shannon and Jung are settling in to watch a show. If this was in real time, this scene would've actually been two hours of them mulling over what show they were in the mood for, but then ultimately end up watching Schitt's Creek for the umpteenth time. They opt to watch episode four of "Swords of the Realm" which sounds like a Game of Thrones meets Witcher knock-off (that or this season takes place in the future where the pandemic is over and the Netflix adaptation of Magic: The Gathering has already been released).
So, Kimchee gives Jung what is probably the worst advice, which will no doubt backfire on him. He suggests that the next time they're watching one of Shannon's shows, Jung should ask a lot of questions to illustrate how annoying it is. This might be a good time to update last week's "worst boyfriend" poll.
Okay, does Jung not know who his girlfriend is? Like, of course Shannon would be into him asking a bunch of questions about her favourite show. Chatty people who are into a show can go on and on for hours, recapping every little detail of every single episode, injecting their own thoughts and commentary
The next day, Shannon walks in on Jung complaining to Terence about her talking through the show. She explains, quite reasonably, that she was only talking because he was asking all those [very ingenuine] questions, which he explains he was only trying to make a point.
Maybe actually asking her to not talk during his show would've made that point clearer but it seems lately that communication is not their strongest asset. At least her questions were from a place of interest whereas his came from a malicious scheme to get her to stop talking.
Shannon soldiers on with a smile on her passive aggressive face as she tells him that she thought they had finally found a show they can watch together but she was apparently wrong. Jung is obviously pained by this (but again, it could've been totally avoidable).
Anyway, fast forward to their apartment where Jung comes home and finds Kwami watching "Kilenny Girls." He appears a little confused so Jung answers some of his questions about the show proving that he at least was paying attention to Shannon's answers. By the time Shannon comes home, she finds them both utterly engaged in it.
While Appa is taking a quick break to dine-in at a Korean restaurant, Kimchee is also there, picking up takeout. Appa invites him to sit down and join him, much to the annoyance of the restaurant owner.
Turns out they both had a great time. Appa almost becomes a little obsessed with Kimchee (in an adorable dad way), while Kimchee feels like he may be betraying Jung due to Jung and Appa's tumultuous father-son relationship in the past, so he plays it off like it was an awkward encounter, even though he loved it.
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