Lovefilm Update

Regular visitors to this blog will be aware that I have a subscription to Lovefilm.  I recently discovered that my subscription has been changed without me being made aware of it.  Normally when this sort of thing happens you would assume that you're about to get screwed over by the man, but in this instance the change has been quite beneficial.

Up until last month I have had the same plan on Lovefilm since I first signed up to Amazon's DVD-by-post scheme 8 years ago - 4 DVDs a month, 2 at a time.  From this month onwards my subscription has been changed to an unlimited number of DVDs per month (still only 2 at a time though).  Previously this was a slightly more expensive package, but I never went with it as I didn't think I would have much chance of getting through more than 4 films each month.  Now Lovefilm have upgraded my account to have this new package without charging any more money - great!  I'm already reaping the benefit as I've got my 5th DVD of November coming my way as I type.

The question of why this has happened and why now has sloshed around in my brain for a few days, and I've concluded that there are probably a series of reasons, but one major of those reasons is the biggest of all.  Two minor reasons for this happening are likely that a) Amazon have recently re-acquired Lovefilm and are looking to do something different with the business and b) Lovefilm no longer offer 4 DVDs a month to new customers and so to cut down on admin they're moving all existing customers on to new packages.  The big reason for this though is surely the thing that's staring down the barrel at the entire home entertainment industry at the moment - streaming and catch-up TV.

The future of home entertainment looks to be inextricably linked to the internet, smart TVs and services like I-Tunes and I-Player.  As more and more film and TV are available on demand via services such as Netflix, what will happen to the more traditional film rental industries?  Only this week Blockbuster announced that almost all its video rental stores are due to close after years of haemorrhaging money.  Is Lovefilm worried that its own business is heading in the same direction?  Perhaps the heads of Lovefilm are trying to re-invigorate the DVD rental market by giving all their customers a free upgrade?

It's impossible to know the real motives behind what Lovefilm are doing, but what I do know is that while coverage of the internet remains sporadic in parts of the UK and non-existent across much of the world there will still be a market for by-post rental services.  The future will no-doubt be in online streaming services, but as Microsoft discovered recently when they tried to force the games industry to accept that the new Xbox One will only operate with an active internet connection, most people aren't quite yet ready for a world in which you have to be connected to the web in order to exist.  Only when access to the internet starts to be treated more like a utility than a luxury commodity will that future start to materialise.