Looking Back at When Netflix Was Just a Movie Rental Company

In the late ’90s, Netflix was just a small movie rental company that mailed DVDs to its customers. At the time, the price for a seven-day rental was $4 with a $2 shipping charge. When you place a rental order through dvd.netflix.com, you would wait for days to watch the Netflix movie you ordered. The package with which Netflix mailed the DVDs already had a return to sender stamp so you could just drop the package in a mailbox when you’re done watching a film. Those were the days when the entire family would watch a movie in their living room.

Curiously, at the time when it only offered movie rentals, the company was already named Netflix— a combination of "Net" (a common abbreviation of the Internet) and "Flix" (from "flicks," slang for a movie or film). That’s because customers had to order the movies through the Internet.

The following are some photos showing how people watched Netflix when streaming was not yet a thing. 

How People Ordered Netflix Movies in the 2000s

Photo by TVJunkie.

Netflix's Old Logo Seen in an Internet Ad in 1998

Photo by TVJunkie.

When the Netflix Movie Finally Arrives

Photo by Willking1979 | Wikimedia Commons.

How to Return a Netflix Movie Rental

In 2009, Netflix launched a streaming service for Playstation 3 users that allowed you to stream movies from your console. You had to request a disc from Netflix and it will arrive in the mail like a standard Netflix movie rental.

A PS3 Netflix Streaming Disc

Watch the short video below to know more about the history of Netflix.