Netflix’s U.S.-only DVD-by-mail business, DVD.com, has been shrinking by 20% year over year each quarter this year. That’s not surprising in the absence of any marketing spend and consumer preference for the immediacy of streaming video.
In the third quarter, Netflix’s DVD revenue dropped 20% to $35 million. Meanwhile, its streaming revenue rose 6% to $7.89 billion.
I love the Netflix DVD service for its deep catalog of older movies as well as new Hollywood releases. But I’m in a shrinking crowd.
The future of Netflix’s DVD business is in the hands of the major studios and their willingness to support the physical media market. However, with retailers cutting back on space for DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales and Redbox trimming its number of rental kiosks, the prospects for DVD don’t look that good.
Add to that the fact that many new movies are no longer being released on video disc. My saved queue has quite a few movies from the past couple of years that haven’t gotten a DVD release.
Also, older movies are not being reissued. So, when Netflix’s copies of older movies get scratched, broken or degrade, they aren’t being replaced.
My current saved queue on DVD.com has 66 titles that don’t have release dates. It would be longer, but I’ve watched a good number of the unreleased movies on multiple streaming services.
By comparison, my Watch queue of available movies has just 33 titles.
Photo: Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings with DVD mailers. (Netflix)
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