Amazon Prime to be merged with LOVEFiLM Instant on 26th Feb

by Mark Tyson on 21 February 2014, 10:06

Tags: Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), LOVEFILM

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Amazon has announced that Amazon Prime will include unlimited streaming of more than 15,000 movies and TV shows from Wednesday next week. This move is, in effect, rolling in Amazon's LOVEFiLM Instant into Amazon Prime membership. The new service will be called 'Amazon Prime Instant Video' in a parallel to the offering which Amazon runs for its US customers.

"Millions of customers in the US have streaming video included as part of their Prime membership and they tell us they love the combination of unlimited delivery, the ability to borrow Kindle books, and convenient access to thousands of the most popular movies, TV shows and exclusive videos," said Greg Greeley, Vice President of Amazon Prime. "We are delighted to be bringing that same combination of services to the UK, providing members truly unique benefits they can enjoy every day of the year."

Amazon says the combined service will be available for £79 a year which represents "a 35% saving for all the benefits of the two previously separate services". However current Prime customers will enjoy the upgrade for free, until their renewal date, and until 26th Feb you can sign up for the combined 'Amazon Prime Instant Video' for £49 for the year.

The new offering is clearly outline's in Amazon's graphic, above. Amazon Prime offers unlimited one day delivery on millions of items and lets users freely borrow Kindle eBooks from a choice of half a million titles. LOVEFiLM gives subscribers access to over 15,000 movies and TV shows in a service accessible from various smart devices. Now these services are to merge but Amazon says that it is not only making the combined bundle a better value proposition but it is increasing its investment in exclusive content and original programming for subscribers.

"We've worked hard to offer the best selection of TV shows and movies for Prime Instant Video—in fact, we've more than tripled selection since LOVEFiLM became part of the Amazon family," said Tim Leslie, Vice President of Amazon Instant Video for the UK and Germany. "We also added high definition video and introduced apps for popular devices like Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Samsung and Sony TVs and iPads and iPhones. Customers who love movies and TV will love Amazon Prime Instant Video."

Amazon exclusive video content includes the likes of the Hangover Part II, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, The Walking Dead, and Vikings Season 2. We are also told that two original series are due to be launched soon and 10 new pilots for shows, created by the likes of Chris Carter (The X-Files), Eric Overmyer (The Wire, Treme) and Jill Soloway (Six Feet Under), are in the making.

Has Amazon's new offering and time limited merger special offer pushed any readers over the purchasing edge?

HEXUS Forums :: 28 Comments

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Posted by AJRDLawrence - Fri 21 Feb 2014 10:47
I rarely shop on Amazon, but when I do I tend to opt for free super saver delivery. On occasion it may take too long for them to pull their finger out and crack on with shipping within a reasonable time frame so I may cancel my order and shop elsewhere. I don't have / want / need or care for Kindle either so Amazon Prime hasn't interested me until now.

Goodbye Netflix, hello Amazon Prime I guess.
Posted by Dooms - Fri 21 Feb 2014 10:58
Took them long enough, US have had this (with Amazon Instant) for YEARS!

My LoveFilm account is still active from the 6months for £10 that was kicking about before but to be honest I've only opened it up twice and never found anything I fancied watching that wasn't already on Netflix.
Posted by crossy - Fri 21 Feb 2014 11:25
Zero interest here in Lovefilm - other than in avoiding those annoying folks that accost you when you're trying to get shopping done. Checked out the selection and it seemed to be mainly old films and TV that you can probably get quite easily on box set from various folks - including Amazon themselves.

Really quite like the Prime feature, although I've not used the Kindle library yet, figuring that I'm ahead on the deal after about 6-8 months.

So if they're planning to boost the price by £30 in order to add stuff that I can already get via VirginMedia then I'm a lot less impressed. Hopefully Amazon will do a version of Prime that comes without the Lovefilm dross, otherwise I'll think about not renewing.
Posted by Saracen - Fri 21 Feb 2014 11:29
HEXUS
Has Amazon's new offering and time limited merger special offer pushed any readers over the purchasing edge?
Well, yes. It's pushed me over the edge to not use Prime.

This deal might be a good deal if you want Lovefilm. But I'm that strange old-fashioned breed that buys media on disc. It may not be the way of the future, or even the way of now for many/most, but it certainly is the way for me. I tried Lovefilm back in the days when it was a disc exchange, and gave it up because, first, I could rarely get the discs I wanted, and secondly, those that I actually enjoyed I ended up buying anyway. So I gave up Lovefilm.

Amazon
Customers who love movies and TV will love Amazon Prime Instant Video."
I can't speak for anyone else, but this one doesn't. I'm not interested in Lovefilm, or Netflix for that matter.

In fairness, I stopped using Prime, too. It works well enough and is a good deal if you're ordering enough. But these days, I don't. I tend to buy locally, and on those occasions when I buy from Amazon, I'll either use free delivery and wait, or it's cheaper to just pay for one-off express delivery if I really need it.

So, by bumping the price by £30, all it does for me is turn a marginal deal that's not quite worth it into an ‘absolutely not worth it’ deal.

As for the Kindle lending library, even as someone with (currently) two Kindles, and looking at a third (for backlight, as it's sometimes useful) I've never used the library, and have no plans to, free or not.

IF there was a “Prime Plus” that included Lovefilm and “Prime” that was just what it used to be, I might go back to Prime, if I think I'd be buying enough. But for me, neither Lovefilm nor the Kindle lending thing add any value to me that I'd be prepared to pay for, so all this deal does is represent a 60%+ price hike in a service that was previously marginal anyway, turning barely worth it into certainly not worth it.

Of course, YMMV.
Posted by Dooms - Fri 21 Feb 2014 11:38
I didn't notice the price increase. F that!

I thought you could do the £79 a year deal for both before? I swear I've seen it before. And what's with the increased price? The US get it all included for their $79 a month PRIME cost.

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