Netflix today said it has delivered the two billionth movie since the company's subscription service was launched in late 1999.
The milestone was reached yesterday when a Blu-ray version of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's romantic comedy "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" was delivered to a Netflix subscriber in Birmingham, Ala., from the company's distribution center in Atlanta. Netflix said it is giving the specific subscriber a complimentary lifetime subscription to the Netflix service.
Netflix today serves more than 10 million subscribers and ships approximately two million of its iconic red mailers per day from 58 distribution centers spread geographically across the United States.
The two billion deliveries were generated from a DVD library that now spans more than 100,000 titles, including more than 1,300 that are available in high-definition on Blu-ray. When Netflix launched its subscription service on September 23, 1999 from a lone warehouse in San Jose, Calif., the title count was just over 2,000. It took the company eight years to achieve one billion shipments, a milestone it crossed in February 2007, and a bit more than two years to deliver the next billion.
Earlier this week,
Netflix said it will raise prices about 20 percent for subscribers who rent Blu-ray discs rather than standard DVDs. The new prices go into effect on or after April 27. Prices for standard definition service will remain the same, the company said.