According to a recent article in BBC News "A sea-change is taking place in how people rent DVDs" The article continues by stating:
Over the last year, there has been an explosion in the popularity of renting DVDs via the internet.
Most providers offer a broadly identical service. For a monthly subscription fee, your chosen DVDs are mailed out to you, and once you have watched a film, you simply post it back in the provided pre-paid envelope.
There are no walks to and from your local DVD store and no late fees.
You simply manage your account from your provider's website, adding extra titles to the list of DVDs you wish to watch next.
As soon as you send back the DVD you have just watched, another from the list is automatically posted out.
And as there are no stores to put a physical limit on the amount of DVDs available, the biggest providers offer you a choice of more than 53,000 different titles.