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This month, Rylie Revercomb will talk about how DVDs are slowly losing relativity in the world of media.
The Death of DVDs
The Death of DVDs
By Rylie Revercomb
By Rylie Revercomb
Your parents are tired after a long day of work. You and your siblings have been playing all day, and now it is time to finally wind down and relax. Too exhausted to find another way to entertain you, your parents pull out the holy grail of childhood. The DVD player. If you were a kid in the ’80s to early 2000s, then the DVD is no foreign term to you. These magical discs were portals into other worlds; whether it be Cinderella, The Never Ending Story, or Harry Potter, these silver discs were a form of pure happiness for kids. Flipping through a DVD case to find the perfect movie to watch was like an adventure… so what happened? No longer do kids flock to the DVD case to pick a movie. Instead, they turn on the TV and scroll endlessly through streaming services-- too brain-dead inside to even comprehend the whirlwind of colors whizzing past their eyes. DVDs are dead.
COVID
COVID
People around the world complain about the terribleness of COVID. Which is true. It shut down small businesses, ripped families apart, ended careers, and put a temporary stopper on education. While it was not really talked about during the pandemic, COVID also started the downward spiral of DVDs. To some people, this explanation might seem ridiculous. During the pandemic, people had WAY too much free time on their hands and, as a result of this, people watched a surplus of movies. Theoretically, that should be better for DVDs, right? Wouldn’t they be more popular since they were being used so often? WRONG. If events had gone like they normally do for the DVD companies during a pandemic, then everything would have been fine. However, other companies who faced losing money due to the world crisis came up with a new strategy that completely blew DVDs out of the water. Streaming services. Think about it. All you have to do is turn the TV on and click on a major movie platform, and BAM! You’ve got a movie on the screen in seconds. With DVDs, you have to root through a case for a physical copy, put it in the DVD player, and watch all the trailers… Man, what a hassle. To all of the lazy people who were lounging around like couch potatoes during the pandemic, DVDs seemed like a struggle compared to the very convenient streaming services. There was also a growing paranoia about being infected with the virus, so when rumors spread about COVID living on DVDs, it only pushed people farther away from the little discs. A professor at UC Davis, Hemant K. Bhargava, had this to say about the pandemic during an interview with AOL, “It was the final nail in the coffin.” Of course it was… But, final nail? Yes, dear reader, DVDs were already at risk of extinction prior to the worldwide pandemic.
Image By: Google Play
decrease in sales starting in the 2000s
decrease in sales starting in the 2000s
Images By: How To Academy
Physical media has been at risk since it was invented. People are always worried about the next big thing. Records were overshadowed by VHS tapes, which then began to fade as laserdiscs stepped into the spotlight. Cassettes, CDs, and others that were taken over by DVDs and Blu-Ray. So, what was the threat for DVDs? Well, to put it simply… streaming services. The first major streaming service made was Netflix in 1997, founded as a small media company in Los Gatos, California. At first, it started off as a regular DVD service like the bigger stores. Back then, people actually liked going to big stores like Blockbuster, or Family Video to rent real, physical copies of their favorite movies. However, as we shifted into a new millenia, more people got used to the idea of accessing movies without leaving the comfort of their couch, Netflix switched to both a DVD company and a streaming service in 2007. They quickly began to garner more views and skyrocketed into popularity. According to an article on movie website VdoCipher, “In 1999, we did $5 million. Then $35 million and $75 million and then $150 million and then almost $300 million. We were… five years to $500 million, and another three years to $1 billion. All because of the subscription model.” Netflix popped out of the ground from nowhere, and quickly took over the world of movies-- which is when the downfall started. As streaming services became more popular, people just… stopped buying DVDs. Why waste your money on the disc when you can pay $61 dollars a month for a HUGE catalog of THOUSANDS of movies? Certainly, it seems like the better option. An article by Variety, says that “There’s been a 92% decrease in sales of DVDs since 2006.” This is right when streaming services debuted.
Streaming services exploding in popularity was the beginning of the end. The pieces started falling like dominoes, creating a ripple effect as that one choice sparked the end of the DVD industry. Now, nearing 2025, streaming services still sit atop the throne, and DVDs have become the Jester on the King’s court, losing all relativity that they once had. So, if you yearn for the good old days of plugging in a DVD, going to Redbox, or watching the special features on a Blu-Ray disc… then go to the store, buy a movie, and keep a dying industry alive.
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