Friday 21 June 2013

LOVEFiLM to stream THE WALKING DEAD

Friday 21 June 2013
It's interesting to see European market leader LOVEFiLM take up the fight with Netflix—which is still an inferior service in terms of content and choice in the UK, but has the benefit of splashy exclusives like House of Cards and Arrested Development.

LOVEFiLM's owned by Amazon, so they were able to show the drama/comedy pilots Amazon US streamed across the pond, and recently acquired The History Channel drama The Vikings. And now, they have their biggest catch: AMC's The Walking Dead.

Season 1 is already available to stream on Lovefilm Instant, with the subsequent two seasons debuting over the next 18 months. The Walking Dead will nevertheless retain its UK debut on Fox (formerly FX), with Channel 5 having the terrestrial rights (they're about to start season 3, incidentally).

As a LOVEFiLM subscriber myself, this pleases me, but it won't really affect my viewing habits. I think LOVEFiLM need a big exclusive, like The Vikings, that more people genuinely care about. Maybe some original content would also be persuasive, if the quality's Netflix standard.

[source: The Hollywood Reporter.]