Netflix has announced that it will discontinue the sales of used DVDs after November 30th. These are DVDs that were previously rented out and later sold off through its website with prices as low as $5.95 per DVD. Netflix said it has made this decision to focus on its core business, which is delivering DVD rentals by mail and also delivering movies instantly through its online service.
On Friday, Netflix announced it has completed the first phase of its beta testing of its upcoming "Watch Instantly" movie-streaming player. This new Netflix player is powered by Microsoft's Silverlight software and Play Ready DRM, which will allow Netflix's movies to be streamed to Windows based PCs and Intel-based Macs.
Netflix has no plans to discontinue its DVD rental program, so they will likely sell off used DVD rentals to wholesalers after November 30th, who will in turn resell those discs. In its blog about the news, a lot of subscribers seem disappointed by the news; especially those who regularly bought used DVDs from them.
Should it ever come to the time where all the majority of consumers rent movies to watch online, it will probably bring an end to selling used rentals altogether, since as streamed movies don't involve physical media (e.g. DVD, Blu-ray, VHS, etc.), these streamed movies can't be later sold as "used".
