By Valerie S. Johnson
Netflix, which bills itself as “the world’s largest online DVD rental service,” has delivered one billion DVDs since its start in 1999. A customer in Texas who ordered "Babel” (which tonight won the Oscar for best original score) received the lucky one billionth DVD and a free lifetime subscription.
With a library of 70,000 titles – five times the selection of a typical bricks-and-mortar video store – Netflix offers nine monthly subscription plans from $4.99 to $47.99. There are no due dates, late fees, or shipping and postage charges. You might think some of those movies are so obscure that no one rents them, but Netflix claims that every three months more than 95% of the 70,000 titles are rented.
A recent Netflix member survey was conducted for the most memorable quotes among the Academy Award®-nominated films. The award for “Best Movie Quote” went to Oscar nominee “Little Miss Sunshine” for the line “Everyone just pretend to be normal.”
The Netflix members’ survey gave first place in the “Did They Just Say That?” quote category to Oscar nominee “The Devil Wears Prada” for the deadpan line “I’m just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.”
Home delivery of movies is good for the environment. According to the
Netflix website, if its members drove to their local video store instead of using the online service, they would use 800,000 gallons of gasoline and release 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Oscar Best-Score Winner “Babel” was 1 Billionth Netflix DVD Delivered
