Will Netflix’s DVD Business Find a New Owner in Redbox, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment?
Netflix’s DVD rental service may not be headed for the scrap heap just yet. The world’s largest streaming service announced this week that it would stop offering users the ability to rent physical discs by mail in the fall of 2023, but there’s at least one potential buyer out there if Netflix wants to make a few bucks for its trouble.
That interested party is Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (CSSE). The company that already owns and operates Redbox, the biggest DVD rental service in the United States, is looking to double down on the physical media market, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I’d like to buy it,” CSSE chairman Bill Rouhana said of Netflix’s DVD business in an interview with THR. “I wish Netflix would sell me that business instead of shutting it down.”
Rouhana says he has expressed similar interest to Netflix several times over the years, but he has never received a reply to his attempts to engage the company regarding its DVD rental service.
“I have tried like three or four times to reach out to the corporate development people about it but just got rebuffed each time,” Rouhana says. “So when I saw it being closed, I thought, ‘Well, maybe they’ll do it now.’”
That’s a possibility, although a Netflix spokesperson told THR that the company is planning to wind its DVD segment down, not sell it. That could simply be a negotiation tactic to get CSSE to raise its bid for the service. But whether it gets Netflix’s DVDs or not, Rouhana sees an opportunity to expand his business.
“This could be a great boon to us because now there are a whole bunch of people who are going to look for a new place to get their DVDs, and we’re close to 90 percent of them based on where our kiosks are located,” he said.
Redbox operates a network of 32,000 rental kiosks in grocery stores, gas stations, etc. around the U.S. It also offers a digital rental service through Redbox, which also allows users to watch free ad-supported content on-demand and through live TV channels.
Related: Netflix Shutting Down Its DVD Rental Program Is a Major Blow to Accessibility and Availability
Netflix’s DVD rental service had seen a steady decline for years, but its death knell may have come in 2022. Revenue from disc rentals was $100 million for Netflix last year, 50% less than in 2021. That precipitate decline was a demonstration of the fact that users simply don’t think of Netflix as a DVD company anymore, despite the fact that it frequently offered movies on physical discs that it did not have the rights to stream.
Many Americans with smaller streaming budgets had hoped the DVD service would continue. Netflix’s ubiquitous red envelopes may be leaving the world for good this fall, but a rental-by-mail service could live on if the company decides to sell to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment or another outlet that sees a future in physical media.
Redbox
Redbox is a free ad-supported video streaming service with dozens of live streaming channels and on demand movies. Users can also rent or buy movies through the platform.