Netflix DVD Marks 20 Year Milestone

Time flies when you’re having fun?

It seems like just yesterday I purchased my first DVD player, on steep discount, via an online auction in 1998. And, as a grad student on a tight budget, I’d swing by the local video rental shop to suggest which titles of the newly introduced format they should stock – like the Criterion Collection Silence of the Lambs. Just as I just missed Netflix’s original launch, having joined up sometime in 1999, I’m also a bit late on the fun 20th anniversary retrospective – that includes years of envelope designs, top rentals, and the like. It’s worth a browse.

Of course, not only has the digital media landscape shifted dramatically over the intervening years, so too has the Netflix business (and my home theater).

3 thoughts on “Netflix DVD Marks 20 Year Milestone”

  1. Not positive in my memory and he wouldn’t remember me even if accurate, but I seem to recall I introduced Vincent Pereira, of Kevin Smith’s film crew, onto Netflix back in the day.

  2. Wow!! I had thought Netflix launched a little earlier than this. I didn’t realize I had signed up with Netflix during their first six months. I first signed up in February 1999.

    I remember they had to force me onto their all you can rent plan. I was adamant about paying per rental, which is what they originally had. But once they forced me onto the all you can rent plan, I was pissed at myself for not switching sooner.

  3. I paid about $600 for my first DVD player about that time. I guess I’m going on almost 20 years of having a Netflix subscription! :-(

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