Goodbye LOVEFiLM, hello Amazon

LOVEFiLM became Amazon Prime Instant Video yesterday, and my account was transferred automatically. I can't really complain, as Amazon's website is more intuitive and navigable than LOVEFiLM's ever was. My monthly subscription charge also hasn't changed, but I have access to even more content and can choose to rent films and TV shows (as you can through iTunes), which Amazon's closest UK rival Netflix doesn't offer... yet? It's already obvious Amazon have more recent films than Netflix, that's for sure.

LOVEFiLM Instant re-branded as Amazon Prime Instant Video

The US-owned Amazon bought the UK's LOVEFiLM service in 2011, but now the two services are starting to merge in the wake of Netflix's phenomenal success in the UK and Germany.

Amazon Prime and LOVEFiLM will amalgamate on 26 February, to create a Prime Instant Video (PIV) service that effectively replaces LOVEFiLM Instant (the part of the company dealing with video-on-demand content, rivalling Netflix). What this means is that customers will be able to unlimited stream 150,000 films and TV shows through PIV and utilise Amazon's Prime next-day delivery service when ordering Amazon products and renting Kindle e-books (through their Kindle Lending Library, which issues one e-book per month).

LOVEFiLM to stream THE WALKING DEAD

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.]

LOVEFiLM buy History's THE VIKINGS

The History Channel's first serialised drama The Vikings has found a home in the UK. Unexpectedly, it's landed at the feet of Europe's biggest film rental company LOVEFiLM. After so much Stateside buzz about Netflix and Amazon getting into the "original programming" business, it looks like LOVEFiLM would like an online exclusive too. Who knows, they might make a few dramas of their own one day.

LoveFilm hate Universal?

I've been a LoveFilm customer for over a year now, and during that time I've encountered no real problems. The service has been pretty quick (a 2-3 day turnaround for disc delivery), relatively painless, and their website's good to use. My only gripe has been that their new envelopes are a pain to open properly, and that prioritizing your movie list of "wants" has little effect on what they decide to send you. Guess what, if you add a 1999 rom-com to your list and flag it as a low-priority, you'll get it before that 2009 summer blockbuster you want desperately. But beyond that, I've been very happy. Well, until now...

See, LoveFilm are embroiled in a contractual dispute with Universal. Nothing has been made clear, but it's assumed that Universal want a better revenue deal for their discs being rented, but LoveFilm aren't keen to change their arrangement as it would likely mean an increase in subscription fees for customers.

The upshot of this dispute is that most Universal movies are suddenly "unavailable for rental", such as: Bruno, Funny People, Inglourious Basterds, The Invention Of Lying and Public Enemies. In fact, it's becoming quite a pain how many movies aren't currently available through LoveFilm, particularly because the company continue to send e-mails asking people to try and keep 10+ discs in their list. I mean, that can be irritating at the best of times, but when it's their fault your list is down to a handful of choices, it starts to annoy me.

Anyway, I understand that businesses face problems from time to time, and it's probably a good thing that LoveFilm haven't just rolled over to Universal's demands. I'd rather they make Universal sweat as they lose what revenue they WERE making via LoveFilm (for awhile at least), before agreeing a compromise deal. So, unlike some people, I'm not going to just abandon LoveFilm (yet), because I've been happy with their service and they've accrued some loyalty from me.

However, in the meantime, I think LoveFilm should tell customers what the problem is (even if they can't go into specifics), because right now people are either (a) confused about why so many films are "unavailable" suddenly, or (b) beginning to think LoveFilm's selection of movies isn't as impressive as their adverts claim it is. Unless you make things clear to people, customers may just ditch LoveFilm and go to Blockbuster.

What's in your DVD rental queue?

From time to time I like to ask readers: what DVDs/Blu-rays are on your DVD rental queue right now? Netflix, Lovefilm, Blockbuster, Amazon, whichever service you use, what discs are on your list and why? I'll go first:

Gran Torino -- I read excellent reviews and terrible reviews, which is itself very interesting to me. Is this racist baloney or intelligent drama? I guess I'll see for myself.

I Love You, Man -- I've heard this is surprisingly good for a movie with a premise that sounds like typical Adam Sandler-esque pap.

Slumdog Millionaire -- a must-see movie, if only to see what all the fuss was about. Yes, I'm one of the few people who didn't see it in the cinema. It had quite mixed and confused marketing, imo. Feelgood rom-com? Foreign quiz-based drama? I couldn't get a handle on it.

The Boat That Rocked -- I want to see if Richard Curtis is branching out from Hugh Grant-starring rom-coms successfully, or not. This wasn't the huge hit many expected, though, but is it a little gem?

In The Loop -- it kind of passed everyone by at the UK box office, and most of the buzz and acclaim has come from American film festival sources. I haven't seen the TV series it's based on, actually, but love Armando Iannucci's other TV work, so I'm looking forward to ti.

Lesbian Vampire Killers -- it's supposed to be terrible, but how terrible? I must know.

The Thick Of It -- purely to plug an embarassing gap in my comedy knowledge, and I'll hopefully be sent this before In The Loop as a primer. But knowing my luck I'll get the movie spin-off delivered first.

Che: Part 1 & 2 -- I'm not particularly keen to see Steven Soderbergh's epic biopic, as the lengthy running time puts me off, but I'll give it a shot. We'll see how far I get with it.

The Damned United -- I love Michael Sheen but dislike football, so this could go either way. Although I hear it's not really about football, it's a character-based drama.

Dead Snow -- Two words: Nazi zombies.

Dragonball Evolution -- I'm a cinematic sadist, I know. I just find it endlessly fascinating how far James Wong (and by extension Glen Morgan) have fallen since writing for X-Files and Millennium in the '90s. Beyond Final Destination 1 & 3, their movie output has been abysmal. The One? Willard? The Black Christmas remake? Ugh.

Outlander -- an alien teams-up with Vikings to help him recapture a "dragon" he was transporting across the galaxy. I've heard mixed things about this, but it sounds like undemanding fun.

What's in YOUR rental queue?

Do you use an online film rental service like Lovefilm, Amazon, Blockbuster or (very popular in the US) Netflix? If so, what's in your queue right now -- and, most importantly, why? Consider this a meme if you have a blog, or else just comment here. I'll go first:

1. DR. NO, because I'm excited to see the Bond classics in high-definition.
2. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, for the same reason, and also because I'm aiming to have a bit of a Bond Season one day.
3. FUTURAMA: BENDER'S GAME, because I'm a fan of this sci-fi animation and these feature-length releases are pretty entertaining. I even thought the widely-derided Beast With A Billion Backs was good fun.
   
4. THE GODFATHER TRILOGY, because these are classic gangster films that apparently now look astonishing in 1080P.
5. THE HAPPENING, because I'm curious to see how bad it actually is -- and, considering I liked M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, maybe I'll like it?
6. INDIANA JONES & THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, which I have already seen at the cinema, but I want to reappraise it away from the hype.
7. IRON MAN, because it's meant to be the second-best superhero film of the year, obviously.
   
8. THE MIST, because reviews are mixed, but the positive ones get me very excited for an old-school monster-based chiller.
9. SPEED RACER, which I've heard was unfairly treated by snooty critics and is actually incredibly fun if you're in the right head-space.
10. UNTRACEABLE, which I only added because my list was very low awhile back, so I needed to add something! Oh, and I want to see just how much it rips off this Millennium episode.

So, care to share your own lists? Any guilty pleasures on there?

LOVEFILM/HATEFILM

Some of you may remember that I joined the LoveFilm online rental service in September, as part of their one-month trial.

Unfortunately, due to the postal strikes and basic incompetence, my trial period was extended into October, despite the fact I'd contacted them by phone to cancel my account!

Apparently it was because some of my DVDs were not returned before the trial period's deadline. So they debited £15.99 from my account. Bummer. But, okay... I was enjoying the service and had pretty much got my £15.99's worth of rentals in October, let alone November.

However, I made sure my account was closed the following month and all DVDs returned 4-days before the next month's deadline.

Then, last week, I kept getting phone calls from "Withheld" – which isn't the name of some achingly-hip rapper I know, or anything. So I didn't answer these calls for days, until one day I relented...

And it was LoveFilm's customer support, just wanting to know why I'd left their service. I told them "because you bastards took £16 from me because of a bloody postal strike that was out of my control!"

But, you know, in a polite way...

Well, she apologized, blah-blah, and continued her spiel about a new offer they're having at LoveFilm for old customers. Basically, you pay for 1 month and get 2 months service. Not a bad deal, really...

But I grumbled about my disappointment with the fact they deducted £15.99 from me after my free trial, and she offered me a deal: £15.99 and 2 months free. Cool!

So yes, I agreed and they deducted another £15.99 from me. In total, I've therefore given LoveFilm £31.98 for 5-months of renting – which would ordinarily have cost me £63.96 + the free month trial.

No too bad, eh? I'm still disappointed they took £15.99 that second month, but I think they've made up for it now. Yes, yes, technically I've spent £31.98 on a service I joined only for the FREE month trial – but I can live with that.

The service was actually pretty good. The only annoying thing is when you (a) run out of films you want to add to your list and get pestered to add more, (b) add a few films you don't really want to see that much, but feel you have to because you want to get the most out of your month, and (c) if you have a list with 5 new blockbusters and 3 old classics... guess which ones you'll be receiving first in the post!

My first 3 DVDs on the way are Pirates 3, Shrek 3 and Die Hard 4.0. I wonder if Zodiac will ever turn up? That's been a fixture on my list for 2 months now, and it never turns up! Is it that popular amongst my fellows renters?