Audio Video News

As if we needed more evidence that the end of physical media is coming, Best Buy has confirmed that it will stop selling DVDs and Blu-ray Discs both in-store and online in early 2024.

“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” Best Buy said in a statement to Variety magazine on Thursday. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”

The move follows the closure of Netflix’s disc-delivery service on September 29th and the summer announcement that Disney would end sales of discs in Australia and New Zealand.

Though the news may come as a surprise to some, anyone who shops at Best Buy knows the chain stopped selling CDs several years ago and has been steadily shrinking its once-robust DVD/Blu-ray display area for years now. The display area in my local Best Buy is down to one sparsely stocked section.

Best Buy, which operates more than 1,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada, will continue to sell video games.

The news is bittersweet for some as Best Buy in recent years had been one of the last remaining places you could go to browse movies since the demise if Blockbuster. Yes, you can still buy discs at Walmart and Target but it's a different experience, if you can call it that, and the selection is lackluster in a bargain-bin kind of way. And of course there's still Amazon, but that's online — a different world/experience than browsing physical discs.

Are you ready to accept the demise of physical media? Leave a comment below…