No more red envelopes: Netflix ejects DVD service

Netflix, which dominates the streaming market, began life in 1998 as a US-only DVD-by-mail rental company, taking on the then-mighty movie rental giant Blockbuster, before dipping into video-on-demand as a perk for its customers. — AFP

LOS ANGELES: After shipping out more than five billion DVDs in its trademark red envelopes, Netflix has finally called time on the movies-by-mail subscription service that launched the Hollywood streaming colossus.

The announcement, made in a letter to shareholders before this week's earnings call, was greeted with bafflement by some broadband binge-watchers who did not know Netflix's DVD business was still running - or that it existed in the first place.