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).