LoveFilm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
LoveFilm is a British DVD rental company which provides online DVD rentals and film downloads in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. It operates the LoveFilm.com website, as well as providing the actual website and delivery infrastructure for an array of branded services in partnership with other British companies. LoveFilm has grown through ten merger and acquisitions of other online DVD rental companies, such as Webflix and DVDsOnTap.
LoveFilm officially launched in March 2004, although apparently had been running for a few months before that. It claimed to reach 50,000 subscribers in December 2004, and 100,000 in March 2005, a month in which it shipped almost 700,000 rentals. The current claims are over 120,000 members and over 62,000 titles. LoveFilm faces major competition from the online operations of Blockbuster and Amazon.co.uk.
Lovefilm merged with Video Island (which similarly had multiple brand partners) in April 2006. ScreenSelect, which was the main trading style of Video Island, has now renamed itself under the LoveFilm banner.
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[edit] Pricing plans and associated rental services
LoveFilm's own service provides "Unlimited" (£9.95-£14.99) pricing plans[1], ranging from 1-3 discs out at a time (a 4-disc plan at £19.95 has been offered in the past). There are also "Combination" plans which allow the rental of both DVDs and video game discs at higher prices.
Each of the "powered by" services will typically have plans similar to Lovefilm's (although some may only have a subset), and may have varying prices, different length free trials, etc. It is not known whether customers of the various companies are treated differently when it comes to choosing titles to be sent, etc. Customers are limited to a single free trial among the array of related LoveFilm-powered companies.
[edit] LoveFilm-associated rental companies
The following is a list of current partners and White label services operated by LoveFilm in the UK/Scandinavia.
- CD-WOW![2] - an online retailer. Offers Unlimited-3
- Sofa Cinema[3] - the Guardian newspaper sponsors this one, offering Unlimited-3 and Light-2.
- WHSmith Movies Direct[4] - from the WH Smith bookstore chain. Offers Unlimited-3 (£13.99) and Limited-1.
- Tesco DVD Rental[5] - Service for the Tesco supermarket chain website, offering 1-3 unlimited DVD rental plans.
- EasyCinema.com[6] - Service in conjunction with the Easy Group.
- five Movie Club[7] - Britain's Channel Five tv network[8]. Offers Unlimited-1,2,3.
- Odeon Direct[9] - Service in conjunction with the Odeon cinema chain.
- BraFilm.no[10] - Service for Norway, acquired by Video Island.
These are in addition to partnerships with TV4, Coop, Telia and Astoria in the Nordics and an exclusive partnership with Deutsche Post in Germany [11].
[edit] Defunct LoveFilm/Video Island-associated rental companies
- Sainsbury's DVD Rental - The Sainsbury's supermarket chain. Offered Unlimited 1-4 plans at lower prices than the regular LoveFilm levels. This was closed by Sainsbury's following a 'strategic review'.
- MSN DVD Rental - Service operated through Microsoft's MSN channel.
- ITV Movie Club - Service operated through the ITV website.
- mymovies - in association with the mymovies.net portal site.
- FilmFour DVD[12] - Film Four is a free-to-view movie channel which is available on Digital TV.
. Offers Unlimited-2.
- lastminute.com - offers Unlimited 1,3,4 and Lite 1,2,3.
- BraFilm.com - Service for Denmark and Sweden, acquired by Video Island and now rebranded as LoveFilm.
In addition, companies such as Virgin and Woolworths may provide special offers for the LoveFilm service.
[edit] "Throttling" and dispute of fair use policy
The company has come in from criticism from users over its claim to offer 'unlimited' DVD rentals. Many regular users have found the company in fact uses long delays at the shipping stage to reduce the number of films a month a customer can rent. The company itself claims that this 'fair usage' policy means all customers get a similar service.
LoveFilm was subject to a dispute by the Advertising Standards Authority over the use of the word "unlimited" in their advertising. It was revealed that they practice "throttling". This is where high-volume customers may experience a greater likelihood of (slower) shipments from alternate warehouses, and selections from lower in their rental queue. They are also less likely to receive replacement shipments on the same day a disc is received. See this wikipedia page for more information on throttling.
