Amazon Prime Video

[Harsin]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a552739/lovefilm-instant-to-become-amazon-prime-instant-video.html

Quote

Amazon Prime and Lovefilm are to be merged into one, creating a new Prime Instant Video service that sees all-you-can-eat movie streaming combined with Prime's next day delivery.

The move also brings a new pricing setup for Prime Instant Video, with the service costing £79 per year for both movies and full Amazon Prime membership.


The price not only brings the ability to stream from a catalogue of 15,000 movies and TV shows, but also unlimited next day delivery on Amazon products, as well as access to Kindle books to borrow.

For current Lovefilm users, all they will see is a rebrand and a new logo within what had been Lovefilm's apps, while pricing will stay the same. Those who currently pay for Amazon Prime will see video streaming added to the service at no extra cost.

Amazon's more blockbuster-orientated pay per view movie library will also be available within Prime Instant Video.

For those interested, Amazon is putting on an introductory offer of £49 for a full year of Prime Instant Video, which includes both streaming and next day delivery.

The service will launch on the February 26. Those who sign up before then will get the £49 deal.

I used to be with Lovefilm, but left when they stopped renting games. At the time their streaming video service was nice as an added bonus on the subscription, but not something I'd have paid for on its own due to a poor library and apps only available on a very limted number of devices with rubbish update support.

Not sure if this will tempt me away from Netflix, their original programming (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Arrested Development) blow away Amazon's rather uninspiring efforts in that area and without the introductory offer it's actually more expensive than Netflix (only by about £7 but still). The main argument for that price is the Amazon Prime delivery which i wouldn't particularly want.

Still, more competition is good for us customers, not sure I'd want to be subscribed to two streaming services, but if they significantly improve their library I might take a look eventually.

[gospvg]

I'm currently with Lovefilm paying £7.99 for the unlimited one disc at home & instant package (this subscription is no longer available, it is now 9.99). I'm also on Netflix paying £5.99 for 2 screen viewing. Netflix is certainly used more by the household than Lovefilm but I enjoy the disc at home service & hope this still continues because it means I can watch the latest movies earlier rather than waiting for them to become available on streaming services.

On top of that I am also a Prime customer & received an email from Amazon to confirm they will be charging me £49 when my subscription comes up for renewal in April. Lovefilm have also confirmed my subscription will be fixed at £7.99 & not increased to £9.99 (for how long I am not sure).

[mdn2]

Yeah, unless they up their uninspiring selection, there's nothing to tempt me from Netflix here. Plus, given that my parents get their Prime next day delivery 'fulfilled' by Yodel, there's not much to tempt me to that, either.

[Sng]

I bloody love Prime. Nothing quite like ordering something Saturday afternoon and getting it Sunday.

But yeah the selection definitely needs improving. Hopefully they'll be sinking a lot of money into it now they're trying to push it.

[toythatkills]

Between the streaming, one-day delivery, and free Kindle books, there's probably enough to get me to subscribe. I'm currently in a 30-day trial of Prime, I have no idea whether that gets me the £49 prIce or the £79 one at the end though.

LoveFilm isn't dying by the way, they're continuing the DVD by post business with that name.

[SeanR]

I just finished a 60-day trial.

hardly used it. seems like there's nothing on it most of the time.

[gospvg]

LoveFilm isn't dying by the way, they're continuing the DVD by post business with that name.

That's good to know this is a more useful service to me than Lovefilm Instant or Netflix.

[Hanzo the Razor]

I have Prime already so will see how I go with this. I had Lovefilm briefly last year but I found the streaming service to be pretty poor compared to Netflix. I cancelled it after a couple of months.

[Harsin]

I've amended the title, didn't realise Lovefilm was continuing as a brand on its own.

[christaylor]

Between the streaming, one-day delivery, and free Kindle books, there's probably enough to get me to subscribe. I'm currently in a 30-day trial of Prime, I have no idea whether that gets me the £49 prIce or the £79 one at the end though.

LoveFilm isn't dying by the way, they're continuing the DVD by post business with that name.

Looks like you should be offered the £49 offer, according to the Trial button on the website: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/prime/pipeline/landing?ie=UTF8&primeCampaignId=preLaunchPVDEUK&ref=GTOLearnMorepreannounce

This looks like quite a good deal, though is there anywhere that actually tells you what content will be available through the streaming service? The website is surprisingly sparse on detail.

[sofasurfer]

I have never had anything delivered via Prime on a Sunday. Always monday for me.

I bloody love Prime. Nothing quite like ordering something Saturday afternoon and getting it Sunday.

But yeah the selection definitely needs improving. Hopefully they'll be sinking a lot of money into it now they're trying to push it.

My Prime has just renewed until Feb 2015 and it shows they will be charging the £79 fee then.

I'm also on Lovefilm and haven't had anything yet saying that they will be merging the payments into one though. i did read an article last week about how Amazon do not make any money out of Prime and that they would be upping the price so I'm guessing this is the result.

[Hanzo the Razor]

My Prime renewed at £49 at the beginning of the year. If it's going up to £79 I'll have to seriously consider whether it would continue to be worth it for me next year. I don't see the streaming service as being much of an incentive to pay an extra 30 quid for it.

[sofasurfer]

My Prime renewed at £49 at the beginning of the year. If it's going up to £79 I'll have to seriously consider whether it would continue to be worth it for me next year. I don't see the streaming service as being much of an incentive to pay an extra 30 quid for it.

It will go up..check your Prime account inf as it lists how much the next charge will be.

[toythatkills]

Looks like you should be offered the £49 offer, according to the Trial button on the website: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/prime/pipeline/landing?ie=UTF8&primeCampaignId=preLaunchPVDEUK&ref=GTOLearnMorepreannounce

This looks like quite a good deal, though is there anywhere that actually tells you what content will be available through the streaming service? The website is surprisingly sparse on detail.

Cool.

And presumably the catalogue will just be exactly the same as LoveFilm's current streaming catalogue, which isn't amazing really.

[Wizcat]

Lovefilm's catalogue is weak. I had a one year trial and probably used it twice, whereas I use Netflix daily.

The biggest let down for me though was the fact you couldn't stream Lovefilm to a mobile/tablet. I see now they finally have something to stream to IOS, but still nothing for Android. Unforgivable in this day and age.

I'm on a one month trial of Prime at the moment, and if the ebook library offer wasn't locked to Kindle devices I may have been tempted to extend.

I'm out.

[CGMF]

So is there anywhere that still does rent games now that Lovefilm have stopped? I found www.boomerangrentals.co.uk but it looks dodgy.

[Nick R]

I'm currently with Lovefilm paying £7.99 for the unlimited one disc at home & instant package (this subscription is no longer available, it is now 9.99).

Yeah, I'm on the next package up - 2 discs at a time at £9.99, which would be £11.99 if I was to sign up to it now. I originally intended to work it so that one disc would be at home while the other was in the post, but I've never managed to get through discs that quickly!

After those price increases for the disc packages (after they were quietly decreased a couple of years ago!), I can't help but interpret this merger news as yet another step on the road to the inevitable phasing out of the disc postage service. As someone who likes bonus features and subtitles, that concerns me.

[pledge]

This is a little annoying that they've tied these services together. I was quite happy with my prime membership, but £49 was about the limit I'd pay for that. I don't want the video service with the current library, and I already have Netfllx. So they probably just lost a prime customer of about 5 years.

[Hanzo the Razor]

This is a little annoying that they've tied these services together. I was quite happy with my prime membership, but £49 was about the limit I'd pay for that. I don't want the video service with the current library, and I already have Netfllx. So they probably just lost a prime customer of about 5 years.

Likewise. Lovefilm's streaming service was crap. I certainly don't want it again.

[pledge]

Also, I just checked my account and my next renewal is in a couple of months, and showing £79 already. No contact from them that they'd increased the price, and no option to get the one year at £49 they are offering new people. So much for rewarding long standing customers.

[Ork1927]

So is there anywhere that still does rent games now that Lovefilm have stopped? I found www.boomerangrentals.co.uk but it looks dodgy.

Boomerang is fine - no problems with them as a customer for 3 odd years. Only had the basic package though so can't comment on how good they are on getting new releases out quickly.

[gospvg]

Yeah, I'm on the next package up - 2 discs at a time at £9.99, which would be £11.99 if I was to sign up to it now. I originally intended to work it so that one disc would be at home while the other was in the post, but I've never managed to get through discs that quickly!

After those price increases for the disc packages (after they were quietly decreased a couple of years ago!), I can't help but interpret this merger news as yet another step on the road to the inevitable phasing out of the disc postage service. As someone who likes bonus features and subtitles, that concerns me.

If they do phase it out then there are a couple of others like CinemaParadisio & Blockbusters.

Also, I just checked my account and my next renewal is in a couple of months, and showing £79 already. No contact from them that they'd increased the price, and no option to get the one year at £49 they are offering new people. So much for rewarding long standing customers.

that is odd my next renewal is in April & showing £49

This is a little annoying that they've tied these services together. I was quite happy with my prime membership, but £49 was about the limit I'd pay for that. I don't want the video service with the current library, and I already have Netfllx. So they probably just lost a prime customer of about 5 years.

The price of Prime was going to rise, it has been discussed over the last few months, Amazon are just giving you something else to sweeten the deal.

[Indy @ S.E.]

is there any way of buying another years membership now for £49 before it goes up?

Mine is up for renewal on the 25th of December at £79.

[gospvg]

is there any way of buying another years membership now for £49 before it goes up?

Mine is up for renewal on the 25th of December at £79.

Nope not that I can see but no harm in calling Amazon customer support & asking them the question, you might get lucky.

I don't think I am going to renew my Amazon Prime, I never really watched much on Lovefilm Instant & it was only the Blu-Ray via post service that I used which I will keep. If that goes then I suppose I will just go down the route of streaming rentals via one of the many options.

[Guest]

So can we use our prime accounts now to stream stuff? The PS4 lovefilm/amazon app doesn't seem to work yet.

[gospvg]

So can we use our prime accounts now to stream stuff? The PS4 lovefilm/amazon app doesn't seem to work yet.

2 Days to go yet.

[gospvg]

Got an email this morning from Amazon Prime, so from the 26th Feb the by post service will need to be accessed from Amazon & not Lovefilm website. The good news is my Lovefilm sub will reduce by £5.99 which is great because I am only currently paying £7.99 fo £2.00 for a by post service? I'll believe that when I see my next CC statement.

We're pleased to announce some exciting upgrades and changes to your Prime and LOVEFiLM memberships. Since 2008 we've increased the number of items eligible for Unlimited One-Day Delivery from 1 million to over 7 million, in addition to adding over 500,000 books to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library for you to borrow. Today we are announcing changes that will make Amazon Prime and LOVEFiLM even better.

Your Amazon Prime membership will include Amazon's new Prime Instant Video streaming service beginning February 26, 2014

Prime Instant Video will give you unlimited access to Britain's largest subscription streaming service with over 15,000 titles to choose from. It includes the same great movies and TV shows and the same apps for tablets, TVs and game consoles that you've enjoyed with your LOVEFiLM subscription.

With these improvements in Prime you will no longer need the streaming element of your LOVEFiLM subscription, and we will cancel it for you when Prime Instant Video launches. Your Prime annual fee will not change until you renew on April 25, 2015. After that, your membership will continue for the new price of just £79 per year (a saving of £41 compared to adding a separate streaming membership).

Your LOVEFiLM By Post and Amazon Prime Instant Video memberships should be accessed atAmazon.co.uk from February 26, 2014

We have worked hard behind the scenes to ensure this change is seamless:

• Your monthly LOVEFiLM bill will be reduced by £5.99 as the cost of the streaming service will be included in your Amazon Prime Membership.
• You will continue to enjoy the same selection of great movies and TV shows on DVD and Blu-ray with your LOVEFiLM By Post subscription.
• Your Rental List, Watchlist and account settings will all be available on Amazon.co.uk

If you have questions, we are always happy to help. You can contact us via email, phone or chat from the Help section of Amazon.co.uk.

Thank you for being a Prime member,

[scottcr]

so wait a minute...

I pay for prime, but I don't pay for Lovefilm. I used to, but thought it was pretty poor compared to Netflix. So, after a particularly difficult hard sales call, I cancelled Lovefilm.

Does this mean that, come september (my renewal day), if I want to continue to use prime it's going to go up to 80 quid and I'll be forced to have Lovefilm? If I don't want Lovefilm, can I remove this from my subscription and pay for prime only?

[Harsin]

So, after a particularly difficult hard sales call, I cancelled Lovefilm.

Pro-tip: If anyone here is thinking of cancelling Lovefilm then you can do it on the website if you wait until after 12am or on a Sunday. At least you used to be able to, that's how I did it to avoid the Spanish Inquisition on the phone.

[gospvg]

so wait a minute...

I pay for prime, but I don't pay for Lovefilm. I used to, but thought it was pretty poor compared to Netflix. So, after a particularly difficult hard sales call, I cancelled Lovefilm.

Does this mean that, come september (my renewal day), if I want to continue to use prime it's going to go up to 80 quid and I'll be forced to have Lovefilm? If I don't want Lovefilm, can I remove this from my subscription and pay for prime only?

Check your prime account mine says £49 for my next renewal but after that yes it will be £79.

The Lovefilm Instant, Kindle Library are both now part of Prime.