News came along this week that Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, are buying up Lovefilm – the most successful popular video-through-the-post service in the UK. Lovefilm have around 1.6 million customers in Europe.
Story here and Guardian story here
The way it works is that you go to their web site and make up a list of the films you would like to see. say 30 or so. They will send you a DVD film from the list through the post and as soon as you return that one, the next one is sent. There are various rental deals depending on how keen a movie watcher you are.
Now with Amazon on board, they hope to break into the video streaming market. There is a catch though, as Sky has contracts to not only broadcast films from the main movie studios, they also own the UK on-demand rights as well. This makes it very difficult for new entrants into the market.
The Competition Commission has now got involved with the whole video on-demand issue to see if the market needs more competition. The decision is still out.
Meanwhile in America video-on-demand is huge, growing at 31% per year. As a taster of what kind of devices you need to take advantage of this new form of entertainment, have a look at Wired magazine’s review of HDTV media streamers now available in the States.
I think in about 5 to 10 years time, the way we all consume films and entertainment will look very different.
