You are missing an important thing.

Netflix allowed a huge library of DVDs to be rented. You could have 3-4 DVDs on rotation for a rather cheap price.

This happened when Blockbuster would charge you $5 per movie, and Netflix would charge $10.99 for unlimited DVDs, but you could only have 3 DVDs checked out.

That's why Netflix was huge and killed Video Store rentals.

BTW, this is still the case. https://dvd.netflix.com/

Netflix has never dropped their DVD service even though they wanted to many times. There are still places in the US where broadband is unavailable.

Also, due to first sale they don't have same license restrictions as they would on streaming. Once they buy the disc they can rent it as many times they want for as long as they want.

I've considered re-adding the DVD rental, I've been using Netflix since they included the coupons in DVD player purchases, because they have the films that aren't available on Netflix streaming and it would be cheaper than adding the myriad streaming service subscriptions.

I use the disc service instead of streaming. Its cheaper and the selection has a ton of stuff I want to basically rent but not buy. I also purchase a ton of movies on disc too. It is good for those 'hmm not sure if bargain bin is ok on the price to buy'. Friend of mine uses redbox pretty much exclusively too in the same way. We both have access to decent internet as well.

Downside, there is starting to become a decent number of shows/movies that are exclusive streaming. Second downside is it can be decently slow to get anything. I average about 4 discs per month on a 1 disc out at a time level. It used to be 6-8 per month. But they slowed it down.

I stopped messing with streaming because of the churn of is it on this one or that one. I just gave up and bought whatever boxset I needed. Then found I was not watching the streaming services at all.

Funny, I'm not from the US, all I get from https://dvd.netflix.com/ is a 404 page not found error.

Maybe that's the perfect use case for subscription-based VPNs, renting DVDs from an American IP address... Hope it fits through the IP tunnel.

Actually, though the page literally has the string "404" in the title, it returns an HTTP 200 and redirects via Javascript.

  $ curl -I https://dvd.netflix.com/
  ...
  HTTP/1.1 200 OK

They probably don't have DVD rental at all in your country. Netflix in the US/CA and Lovefilm in the UK were the only DVD/Bluray mailing service that I'm aware of. Once they were able to offer streaming internationally, setting up mailorder service probably wasn't even considered.

I re-upped their DVD service for a while early in the pandemic. It's still worthwhile if you want to watch a lot of movies even if their back catalog availability has deteriorated quite of bit. It makes me shake my head a bit that so many people consider suggesting that the idea of just watching some things on physical media (whether Netflix disc by mail, library, or just buying a movie) makes you a weirdo. (Or for that matter, renting streaming a la carte.)

There were a couple of movies I just can’t get without pirating. Already had Netflix and Prime, but to watch Chunking Express I would have needed to subscribe to HBO Max just for this one movie. There was no option to buy/rent it one time on YouTube/Amazon. This was true for at least 4-5 movies I wanted to see (yep, I’m that snob that doesn’t watch the latest and greatest).

And then I’d have to remember to cancel HBO Max.

HBO max makes me mad. A bunch of good old movies had their rights purchased so if I want to watch the Thin Man, a movie from the 30s, I need to get HBO max. No thank you.

Or you can rent it a la carte. (Or very possibly borrow it from your local library whether they have it or can get it from inter-library loan.)

Or instantly access it via the internet for free because everyone who made it is long since dead.

You know what’s even cheaper than renting DVDs?

But also, I get your stance. I prefer legal routes over gray/black markets.

In the UK second hand DVDs are very cheap on eBay. A classic film might cost $2.50. Action trash is buy one get one free for $2. Both prices include postage.

Right! Streaming services weren’t feasible back then. We lacked the bandwidth, no apps existed (because internet connectivity outside of a desktop/laptop computer was in its infancy), and not that many people connect a computer to their TV.

People were excited about streaming services because we all got sick of dropping $20+ to buy a shitty movie or album, and there were always availability issues at video rental stores.

Ownership over movies and TV shows isn’t particularly important. I don’t have data to support this, but it seems true that people watch the (probably overwhelming) majority of movies only one time. Why own what I don’t want or need? And if I really enjoy the flick, I can still buy a disc.

Music seems more important to own since owning is the only way to guarantee availability.

Is that why Netflix killed video stores? I don't know anyone who used it when it had DVD rentals (I don't even know if we had that option in Canada).

Myself and most people I know stopped renting videos when we could stream stuff easily.

I'm sure it depended on your social circle/age group.

My age group, mid 20s during Netflix creation, everyone I knew have a Netflix DVD subscription. We were raised with VHS rentals, so DVD rentals were the natural next step when DVD players got cheap.

Same. It was a chore to churn through the discs and watch whole seasons of shows like the X-files, but by god we did it.

I think you might be an outlier. Netflix DVD rental was huge in the US—can't speak for Canada though. Everyone I know had it.

Yeah, it was big although it worked better for film than TV. I wish it were still bigger. The fact that so many people seem to think that just renting a physical disk is something weird means that they're really not investing in restocking older films any longer.

Spotify largely works as all-in-one sevice for (mainstream) music, I don't know why it would have been unreasonable to think that same could have happened to movies/series.

The licensing/royalty mechanisms for music have long been much more centralized.

I also strongly suspect that, if you look at the numbers, all you can eat everything for video would come with a price tag that very few consumers would pay--especially if you throw in live TV.