Now how will people rent VHS cassettes? (Flickr/Ben Schumin)

DISH announced today that it will shutter its 300 remaining Blockbuster retail locations and all distribution centers by early January. Blockbuster By Mail service will be terminated sometime in mid-December. DISH will continue to operate the Blockbuster @Home app and the Blockbuster on Demand service for its subscribers.

It is a quiet, undistinguished end for a video retail giant that could not combat the continued success of services like Netflix and Redbox.

“This is not an easy decision, yet consumer demand is clearly moving to digital distribution of video entertainment,” said Dish CEO Joseph Clayton in a press release.

Blockbuster, once the undisputed king of the home video rental market, operated more than 9,000 stores at its peak and more than 2,000 stores just a little over two years ago. But in the aftermath of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in 2010, Blockbuster has been unable to stop hemorrhaging money and saw its retail footprint contract to the brink of extinction.

DISH purchased the depreciating video rental retailer in 2011 for just $233 million, a fraction of the company's evaluation of $8.4 billion just seven years prior. DISH had initially hoped to build the ailing company into a viable Netflix competitor, but abandoned that strategy in October of 2012.

Now a relic of the physical media age, Blockbuster will join Hollywood Video in The Great Strip Mall In The Sky. But DISH still sees potential in the Blockbuster brand, even if nobody is around to mind the store anymore.

“Despite our closing of the physical distribution elements of the business, we continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand, and we expect to leverage that brand as we continue to expand our digital offerings,” Clayton added.

Goodbye, late fees. We will miss you.