Out Of Business Online DVD Rental Companies
Over the past decade, the online DVD rental industry has experienced explosive growth not only in the United States, but across the globe. With that growth comes companies that were either acquired by larger ones or simply went out of business. This page will try and tie up the loose ends on companies that are no longer operating. We hopefully can give you a little background on what happened to them as well. If you’re looking for companies that are still operating, check out our online DVD rental reviews right now. If there are companies we are missing on this page, please contact us and let us know.
Amazon (UK) – After entering the UK market to try and gain experience to compete in the U.S., Amazon never gained ground and sold off their rental service to LOVEFiLM. Amazon took a large share of the company in the transaction.
Busy Bee DVD (Ireland) – Purchased by ScreenClick in 2007.
CleanFilms (US) – Company that edited the content of DVDs to remove bad language, nude scenes, and excessive violence. In 2006 they lost a lawsuit brought upon them by major movie directors and studios in regards to their editing. They subsequently lost the decision and were forced out of business.
FamilyPass (US) – Company that focused on "family-friendly" DVDs that offered entertainment, education, and inspiration to the screen. The company folded in the middle of 2006 with not much notice.
Jurassic DVD (Canada) – Purchased by DVD-Rental.ca in 2005.
Mentura (US) – Rented thousands of educational DVDs across the country. They were popular among homeschoolers and merged with FamilyPass in 2005 who went out of business a year later.
NicheFlix (US) – Focusing on niche films, this company eventually went out of business in early 2007. They attempted to sell the majority of their DVD inventory via Ebay.
QwikFlicks (US) – Small online DVD rental site that appears to have gone out of business in 2007.
ScreenSelect (UK) – Founded in 2003, the company became Video Island in 2004 after a successful merger. In 2006, the company then merged into LOVEFiLM which it currently does business as.
Video Island (UK) – As the second largest rental company in the UK, it merged with LOVEFiLM in 2006.
Wal-Mart (US) – After failing to gain ground on Netflix, they gave up their rental service and turned it over to Netflix.