In an effort to backpeddle from its previous stance of going to a streaming-only format, Netflix is augmenting the way it offers DVD-only plans.
Netflix followers will no doubt recall last year when the video rental giant announced it was going to yank all DVD-by-mail services from Netflix.com and push that segment of its business to an entirely new website.
In other words, while Netflix, the company, was still going to keep all of its warehouses and shipment infrastructure in place, it wanted to redesign its business so that people going to Netflix.com would only see streaming content. Those people who still wanted to get DVDs in the mail would have had to sign up for another account on another website even though the fulfillment and billing would still go through Netflix.
Confusing? Yeah. That’s probably why in the quarter that this announcement was made, Netflix saw its only decrease in customers. And it was a significant decrease, one that it is just now getting close to filling back up.
So long story short, that move to break off its DVD business never happened, and in fact now it is highlighting that segment of the company even more with a new dedicated URL at dvd.netflix.com.
This is a way for the company to better advertise its availability of DVD-only plans. That is, for customers who may not have a broadband connection or who simply feel more comfortable popping in a DVD than trying to figure out the whole streaming thing, Netflix wants to ensure that they know the old Netflix subscription model still exists.
DVD-by-mail plans start at $7.99 per month. Adding the ability to stream titles instantly will pack a premium onto the DVD rates.
