Netflix’s DVD-by-mail rental service will send out its final discs to customers on Friday Sept. 29. But I wonder how long the service will keep adding new release movies to its inventory.
For now, the service is adding current theatrical films to its listed movies. For instance, it has put recently released movies like “Evil Dead Rise” and “The Covenant” in its listings. It also is adding upcoming releases like “Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3.” But whether it buys copies of those movies isn’t guaranteed.
Between now and the end of September, I’m going to burn through my rental queue on DVD.com. My queue currently has 40 titles. That doesn’t include new releases that will occur between now and then.
A good number of those movies aren’t available from any subscription streaming services, but only can be rented or purchased digitally.
Others like “The King and I” (1956), “The Killers” (1964) and “White Dog” (1982) aren’t available online in any form.
Netflix DVDs were always a good hedge against the spotty availability of movies on streaming services. But now that option is going away.
You can’t blame Netflix for ending its DVD service. People prefer the immediacy of streaming to having to manage physical media. And movie studios are releasing fewer movies on disc now.
My Netflix “saved” queue of movies that currently are not available on disc includes 68 titles. Some are older catalog movies that are out of print, but many are independent and foreign films that are bypassing physical media entirely.
Over the next six months, it will be interesting to see which new-release DVDs Netflix adds to its library.
My guess is that it will add only the big Hollywood releases. And in limited quantities at that.
Photo: Netflix envelope by Marit and Toomas Hinnosaar (via Creative Commons).
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