Streamer U-Next turns back the clock to DVD rental with Tsutaya collaboration

Japanese streamer U-Next has teamed up with Culture Convenience Club, the owner of the Tsutaya video rental store chain to make a combined offering of its streaming service with DVD rental.

The pair have agreed to offer Tsutaya Premium Next, allowing users to rent DVDs and stream content from U-Next with a single subscription.

The combined service is available for a monthly charge of ¥2,189 including tax.

CCC will stop providing its existing Tsutaya Premium video service and will transfer this service to U-Next. From December, the fee for this service will be increased from ¥1,100 to ¥1,397.

Tsutaya Premium Next will enable users to stream content and borrow physical DVDs at the same time, with a set limit on the number of simultaneous rentals. DVDs are available for 32 days, after which a penalty is charged.

U-Next recently announced that the number of paying customers to the streaming service U-Next has passed the three million subscriber milestone.

U-Next had three million paying subs as May 31, the company said.

The U-Next service launched as GyaO Next in June 2007 before changing its name two years later. It reached two million subscribers at the end of August 2020.

The passing of three million paying customers does not include Paravi, the smaller streamer U-Next acquired earlier this year. Paravi is expected to be integrated within U-Next in July, which will boost the number of paying subscribers to over 3.7 million and will create the largest video distribution platform in Japan, ithe annual sales of more than , with annual sales of more than ¥80 billion.