Netflix Delivers 2 Billionth Movie

Netflix has delivered its two billionth movie. To commemorate the milestone, Netflix is giving the lucky recipient of the DVD a complimentary lifetime membership. The 2-billion mark was officially hit yesterday, when Netflix shipped a Blu-ray version of the romantic comedy Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist to Clay Shannon in Birmingham, Ala.

Netflix has grown significantly since it was launched in late 1999. When the company launched on September 23, 1999, it had only a single warehouse in San Jose, Calif. The company’s library at the time was just over 2,000. Today, the company serves more than 10 million subscribers and ships about two million discs per day from its 58 distribution centers across the country. It took the company eight years to cross the one billion milestone and only two more years to ship the next billion discs. There are currently more than 100,000 titles in the company’s DVD library, and more than 1,300 titles are available in high-definition on Blu-ray.

Earlier this week, Netflix announced plans to raise the price of Blu-ray rentals by about 20%. The new prices will go into effect on or after April 27. Prices for standard definition DVDs will remain the same. To avoid the price increase and receive only standard definition DVDs, Netflix members can disable the Blu-ray preference on their accounts.

The price increase is a result of increased demand for what the company calls “the substantially more expensive” Blu-ray discs. Netflix plans to use the additional revenue received from the price increase to add to its selection of Blu-ray titles.