The on line DVD rental industry has become a phenomenon in the 10 years or so since the first sites started to appear on our computer screens. Since its first introduction, the combination of reasonable pricing, ease of ordering and convenience has led to a spectacular growth in this sector of the DVD rentals market.

The convenience of ordering movies from the comfort of our own home was an instant success, and with the advent of user friendly ordering systems, highly competitive pricing and no late fees ever, it comes as no surprise that on line DVD rentals have become the most important part of the business.

The procedure for ordering DVD movies is simpler than it has ever been. The customer has only to create an account at the rental company's website, choose their movies from upwards of 100,000 titles that are available, and simply wait for their movies to be delivered to their mailbox; the whole process can be completed within a day or so.

The on line DVD rental market in the United States is dominated by 2 big players; Netflix and Blockbusters. Netflix were the pioneers of the industry, launching their service in 1999, but were followed some time later by Blockbusters.

Netflix recognized that the power of the Internet combined with a strong postal service in the US could provide huge savings over the traditional local video store format, and they were right. They were able to offer DVDs at very competitive prices, very efficiently, and were able to totally eliminate late charges, charges that had been ticking off customers for many years. Netflix provided the business model that is followed pretty closely by all the main players in the industry today.

Outside of the US, Lovefilm claims to control approximately a quarter of the worlds on line DVD rental market. A UK based company; Lovefilm distributes over 2 million DVDs every month.

While the on line DVD rental market has experience explosive growth since its inception, it is still believed by many to have several more years of sustained growth ahead of it. One downside to this growth is the inevitable decrease in the number of local movie rental shops on our high streets that we will see over the coming years, and while that may not be too much of a hindrance to the majority, there will always be a section of the community who are excluded from access to the internet and who may have to give up renting DVDs as a result.