LoveFilm

This article is about the company. For the Hungarian language film, see Lovefilm (film).

For films titled Love, see Love (disambiguation).

LoveFilm International Ltd.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Electronic commerce
Founded	2002
Founder(s)	Graham Bosher Alex Chesterman Paul Gardner Saul Klein William Reeve
Headquarters	No. 9, 6 Portal Way, London W3 6RU United Kingdom
Area served	UK, Spain, France Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
Key people	Jim Buckle, CEO; Simon Morris, COO; Fern O'Sullivan, CMO
Products	Online DVD rental
Services	PS3- November 2010 ; Xbox 360- December 2011
Revenue	c.US$150 million (2009)
Employees	250-499
Parent	Amazon.com
Divisions	LoveFilm UK, LoveFilm Germany, LoveFilm Sweden, LoveFilm Denmark, LoveFilm Norway.
Website	LoveFilm corporate

LoveFilm (official typeset LOVEFiLM) is a UK-based provider of home video and video game rental through DVD-by-mail and streaming video on demand in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. It is currently an Amazon.com subsidiary, and operates the LoveFilm website, as well as providing outsourced website and delivery infrastructure for other British companies.

In January 2012, LoveFilm announced that it had reached 2 million subscribers. It also claims over 70,000 titles, and over 4 million DVD, Bluray or Games rentals per month across five countries. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, LoveFilm has, in a few years, become the leading online DVD rental and streaming outlet in the UK and across Europe.

The company previously offered a download service alongside postal delivery, but this ceased (at least temporarily) on 23 February 2009. Instead, the company has started a "watch online" service which offers over 4,700 films available to watch as part of subscription. This online viewing is available free for subscribers who have opted for one of their unlimited monthly rental plans; there is also some pay-per-view content available to all.

History

LoveFilm has grown due to 10 mergers and the acquisition of several other on-line DVD rental companies - the three main ones being Online Rentals Limited (the original company), ScreenSelect and Video Island.

In May 2002, Paul Gardner and Graham Bosher launched Online Rentals Limited (trading as DVDsOnTap), based in Harlow, Essex.

In September 2003, William Reeve and Alex Chesterman launched ScreenSelect, based in Acton in West London. And in the same month Saul Klein launched Video Island, based in Kings Cross in central London.

In October 2003, Online Rentals Ltd was bought by Arts Alliance Ventures, a family-owned private equity firm. In December 2003, DVDsOnTap rebranded to LoveFilm, appointed Mark Livingstone as CEO, and relocated to much larger premises in the Spire Green Business Park in Harlow, Essex.

ScreenSelect led what became a clutch of mergers across the UK dvd rental industry. In December 2003, this began with the acquisition of In-Movies. In September 2004, ScreenSelect followed up with the merger with Video Island, which combined ScreenSelect's management and brand with Video Island's venture capital.

The year 2005 saw both LoveFilm and ScreenSelect grow rapidly as fierce rivals - with strong backers the two firms leaped ahead of their rivals. LoveFilm reached 50,000 subscribers in December 2004, and shorty afterwards acquired the retail chain Choices' online business. By March 2005, it had reached 100,000 customers, and shipped almost 700,000 rentals. In June 2005, ScreenSelect acquired DVDs365 (owner of Mailbox Movies, MovieTrak and Qflicks) and a few months later LoveFilm acquired the tiny Webflix. Both rivals acquired a Scandinavian firm; ScreenSelect acquired BraFilm (a Swedish and Norwegian business), and LoveFilm acquired Boxman (operating in Sweden and Denmark).

By 2006 ScreenSelect had outgrown LoveFilm, with over 200,000 customers against Lovefilm's 100,000 users. In April 2006, LoveFilm and Screenselect merged under ScreenSelect's management and technology platform but the LOVEFiLM brand, and moved the headquarters to Acton - ScreenSelect's original base. By the end of 2006 the LOVEFiLM brand had replaced ScreenSelect, Brafilm and Boxman everywhere except Norway - which followed in 2008.

In February 2008, LoveFilm acquired Amazon's DVD rental business in the UK and German markets, and in return Amazon became the largest shareholder of LoveFilm.

Besides Amazon and Arts Alliance Ventures, venture capital firms Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures and Octopus Ventures also have stakes in LoveFilm.

On 20 January 2011 it was announced that Amazon would take full control of the company.

Operate rental services for other companies

Besides its own DVD rental and purchase sites, LoveFilm also runs a number of such sites on behalf of other companies. The following is a list of current such white label services operated by LoveFilm.

• CD-WOW! - an online retailer.
• Sofa Cinema - the Guardian newspaper sponsors this site.
• WHSmith Movies Direct - from the WH Smith bookstore chain.
• Tesco DVD Rental - Service for the Tesco supermarket chain website.
• EasyCinema - Service in conjunction with the Easy Group.
• Odeon Direct - Service in conjunction with the Odeon cinema chain.
• Nectar DVD Rental - Service for the Nectar loyalty card

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and LOVEFiLM Player

In November 2010 LOVEFiLM was released onto the PlayStation 3, as with the online streaming service only members with packages that cost £5.99 or more have access to the streaming service. Also as of the latest Software update to the Xbox 360 (6th December) LoveFilm is now available on the Xbox to stream films. (Gold account is required). .

Advertising

LoveFilm originally used partners to advertise its services but started to run TV adverts from 2006. Since then, the number of white label services and partners has decreased, possibly due to increased brand awareness of the LoveFilm name. Since advertising on a regular basis on TV the company has used British male actors for voice overs - Simon Pegg, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy and Ray Winstone{[1]}. As of 2009, the theme song for the TV ads is "It Must Be Love" by Madness. LoveFilm advertise in multiple media - online, press, TV, train posters, door drops, promotions and even bathroom posters in clubs, pubs and service stations.

"Throttling" and dispute of fair usage policy

LoveFilm came in for criticism from users over its claim to offer "unlimited" DVD rentals. Some users reportedly found the company used long delays at the shipping stage to reduce the number of films a month a customer can rent. In 2006, before the merger with ScreenSelect, LoveFilm was subject of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority over the use of the word "unlimited" in their advertising. The ASA upheld the complaint. It was revealed that they practised throttling, where high-volume customers may experience a greater likelihood of (slower) shipments from alternate warehouses, and selections from lower in their rental list. They are also less likely to receive replacement shipments on the same day a disc is received. The company itself claimed that this "fair usage" policy means all customers get a similar service.

Dispute with Universal Pictures

In late November 2009, LoveFilm stopped adding new DVDs from the distributor Universal Pictures UK to the rental sector of their site. This made a number of films unavailable to users including Public Enemies, The Invention of Lying, Brüno, Funny People, Inglourious Basterds and Kick Ass. This dispute has yet to be resolved and therefore LoveFilm no longer rents post-2009 films distributed by Universal Pictures.

See also

• Netflix, a similar online video rental service model to LoveFilm, also available in the United Kingdom.

External links

• LoveFilm Corporate website
• LoveFilm Film festivals blog
• LoveFilm Film awards blog