Netflix Nixes Used DVD Business

It is likely the company will instead sell the used DVDs to wholesalers, which will act as a middleman and, in turn, resell those disks.

From the Netflix blog: "As you know, our core business is delivering great movie rentals to you on DVD by mail and instantly to the computer and TV, so we've decided it makes sense for us to focus exclusively on that. This means we will stop selling previously viewed DVDs through the Web site. Online sales will continue through the end of the day on November 30th."

In recent weeks, the company has made news by wrapping up the first phase of beta testing of its new "Watch Instantly" movie-streaming player. It also made its service available to subscribers who wish to use Macintosh computers, saying it will use Microsoft's Silverlight software to deliver streaming movies to both PCs and Intel-based Macs. With the company seeming to focus increasingly on streaming, subscribers seemed disappointed by the news, judging by posts to the Netflix blog.

"I'm very disappointed," wrote one subscriber. "I use this service all the time and it's one of the main reasons I use Netflix. I'd hate to go back to Blockbuster."