Netflix is to “wind down” its DVD rental service later this year after 25 years.
The company’s co-chief executive Ted Sarandos announced the change this week and said the final discs would be shipped on September 29.
Many may not know that the streaming giant first launched in 1997, mailing DVDs of TV series and films to its subscribers as an alternative to video rental stores.
The first DVD was shipped by Netflix in 1998 and it was the Tim Burton movie - Beetlejuice.
Netflix made its shift to streaming in 2007 and is now its main source of revenue.
In a blog post titled “Netflix DVD – The Final Season”, the Netflix boss hailed the “iconic red envelopes” as having “paved the way” for the shift to streaming.
However, Ted said it was becoming "increasingly difficult" to maintain the service as the "business continues to shrink".
He said: "From the beginning, our members loved the choice and control that direct-to-consumer entertainment offered: the wide variety of the titles and the ability to binge watch entire series.
"DVDs also led to our first foray into original programming — with Red Envelope Entertainment titles including Sherrybaby and Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion.
"We feel so privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD members for so long, so proud of what our employees achieved and excited to continue pleasing entertainment fans for many more decades to come.
"To everyone who ever added a DVD to their queue or waited by the mailbox for a red envelope to arrive: thank you."
Netflix says that more than 5.2 billion DVDs have been sent as part of the service, and the 2009 film The Blind Side has been the most popular title.
Over the last 25 years, Netflix's DVD.com has had around 40 million subscribers.
Last year, Netflix announced a cheaper ad-supported subscription tier to their streaming service and began attempts to clamp down on customers sharing accounts with other households.
The streaming service began with a crackdown in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
Netflix has just announced that it will be introducing the stricter rules to subscribers in the United States and other countries during the current quarter.
This means that password sharing will likely be banned by July.
