‘DVDs will always be in our DNA’: Netflix to mail its final DVD on Friday

Netflix is in the process of shutting down its DVD service with the last discs being sent out this week.

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Friday will be the day Netflix will mail its final DVD, the company confirmed in a Facebook post.

“But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment,” Netflix said.

The post included a photo of a sign that said, “DVDs will always be in our DNA.”

“It’s sad when you get to the end, because it’s been a big part of all of our lives for so long,” the general manager of Netflix’s DVD division, Hank Breeggemann said in an interview, according to The New York Times. “But everything runs its cycle. We had a great 25-year run and changed the entertainment industry, the way people viewed movies at home.”

DVDs started being mailed by Netflix in 1998. According to the Times, the first movie that was shipped out was “Beetlejuice.” The company was created with a business plan in mind - reinventing the DVD rental business. That included “no due dates, no late fees, no monthly rental limits.”

Netflix took Blockbuster and other similar companies out of business.

Eventually, the service took on streaming which included creating original content that is believed to have transformed the entrainment industry, according to the newspaper.

When Netflix started, it had 58 shipping facilities and 128 shuttle locations, according to the Times. It was the United States Postal Service’s fifth largest customer at the time.

About 25 years later, Netflix has five distribution facilities left in California, Texas, Georgia and New Jersey. According to The Associated Press, these are the facilities that will be sending the final discs on Friday.

Fewer than a million people still subscribe to the DVD service, the AP reported.

“It’s sad,” Netflix DVD subscriber Amanda Konkle said, according to the AP. “It makes me feel nostalgic. Getting these DVDs has been part of my routine for decades.” She is expecting to get “The Nightcomers” starring Marlon Brando as her final disc. Some of the subscribers will get up to 10 discs as “a going away present to loyal customers.”

“We knew this day was coming, but the miraculous thing is that it didn’t come 15 years ago.” Netflix’s CEO Marc Randolph said, according to the AP.