Netflix is out of the DVD business because streaming won – now, can Netflix still win?

Netflix was never going to be a DVD shipper forever. But to win the streaming wars, it might need to recapture what made DVDs by mail so special.Netflix’s DVD business was once so big it was 1.3 percent of all US mail.The DVDs were never the point. Even in 1998, when the company mailed its first DVD — the 1988 cult classicin case you’re wondering — it was already imagining a world without discs. The company was called, after all, not DVDsByMail.

But the end of DVD.com still marks the end of an era. It’s easy to forget now, but when Netflix first launched, the fact that you could log in, slide a movie to the top of your queue, and that movie would appear on your doorstep a couple of days later felt like magic. DVDs were not hard to find at the time! But Netflix got rid of late fees, didn’t make you put on shoes to return things, and never seemed to be out of your favorite flick.

And ultra-fast DVDs changed the movie industry entirely. They killed Blockbuster and your neighborhood movie store, but they also helped turn watching movies and shows into an impulse rather than an event. Before Netflix, you had to go somewhere, browse around, check out, and drive home just to watchWith Netflix, those thin sleeves just appeared at your door, and you watched what was next. All your interactions with Netflix were online, not in a store.

Netflix didn’t single-handedly kill the old way of doing business in Hollywood, but it sure led the charge. It dropped entire seasons at once, instead of one episode at a time. It released huge A-list movies without caring about theaters. It changed the way creators make money by offering big up-front deals rather than gradual residuals. As it grew, and as tech and media companies copied its moves, the old way of making and watching entertainment went away.

Imagine if Blockbuster purchased Netflix like it should have …

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