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2.7 Million Americans Still Get Netflix DVDs in the Mail (cnn.com)
Remember when Netflix used to be a DVD-by-mail company? Well, for 2.7 million subscribers in the US, it still is. From a report: The familiar red envelopes have been arriving in customers' mailboxes since 1998 and helped earn the company a healthy $212 million profit last year. Why are so many people still using this old-school service in the age of streaming? There are a number of reasons. Streaming Netflix video requires a lot of bandwidth -- so much so that Netflix consumes 15% of all US internet bandwidth, according to a 2018 industry report. But many rural areas of the country remain without broadband access. The Federal Communications Commission estimates 24 million Americans fall on the wrong side of this digital divide. The US Postal Service, however, can reach every ZIP code with those red envelopes. One such customer is Dana Palmateer, who lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
"Streaming movies was a no-go, so I just went with the disc service that Netflix offers," she says. "As all of us are doing it in these parts." But Netflix also has plenty of DVD customers in urban areas who prefer the service for its convenience and selection of movies, spokeswoman Annie Jung says. "People assume that our customers must either be super seniors or folks that live in the boonies with no internet access," she says. "Actually, our biggest hot spots are the coasts, like the Bay Area and New York." In 2017, the number of people who subscribed to Netflix's DVD subscription was about 4 million.
"Streaming movies was a no-go, so I just went with the disc service that Netflix offers," she says. "As all of us are doing it in these parts." But Netflix also has plenty of DVD customers in urban areas who prefer the service for its convenience and selection of movies, spokeswoman Annie Jung says. "People assume that our customers must either be super seniors or folks that live in the boonies with no internet access," she says. "Actually, our biggest hot spots are the coasts, like the Bay Area and New York." In 2017, the number of people who subscribed to Netflix's DVD subscription was about 4 million.
There are a lot of obscure movies and documentaries which are still not easily available streaming. The one at a time plan is fine for me, and I can get any of the oddball stuff reasonably quickly, which is better than not at all.
Though Netflix's service has deteriorated, and the DVD inventory is getting pretty poor. For example, only one or two seasons of a 8-season TV show. Even worse, a show that was most popular in its time, Cheers, is not even available on DVD from Netflix. Cheers!?!?!? Delivery time is up to two days in each direction now because distribution centers have been shut down. To me it looks as if Netflix is just soaking the DVD customers for all they can.
The non-streaming catalog is (was) greater and does not disappear due to arbitrary license expirations.
Still is, and first sale doctrine means studios can't yank their titles from the mail version.
When my wife persuaded me to purchase a "farm" at the end of a dirt road off of another dirt road off of a two-lane paved road 11 miles outside a 1-stop-light town, one of the things we knew was going to be a problem was internet. Fortunately, we found a local provider who would raise a small microwave tower on a part of the property (about the size of a front-yard flagpole, not a huge thing) and if we would pay for the electric hookup and monthly electric (about $15/mo) they'd let us have free internet. The tower is line-of-sight to a water tower in town, where the main transmitters are located and our tower provides local access to our house and a few neighbors by small transceivers on our houses. I'm pretty sure I don't want to start a streaming video business from the house, but we can watch Netflix, Prime, ESPN 3 with no problems so that's a win. The alternative was Hughesnet or one of their competitors.