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Following up on Netflix’s deal with the BBC for back-catalogue access, LoveFilm’s not sitting on its laurels and has struck a deal with the Beeb and ITV for archive streaming access.
The deals bring newer and classic shows to the streaming service like Above Suspicion; Inspector Morse; Cold Feet; Spooks; Doctor Who, and the BBC’s critically acclaimed documentary archive including Planet Earth.
Streaming films is great and all, but on-demand streaming TV is even better, because you’re not often bothered about super high-quality video and block-busting soundtracks when it comes to TV. Netflix is renowned for it’s impressive library of TV series for on-demand streaming in the US. It’s good to see Amazon securing British TV for LoveFilm, but if it’s going to shore it up against the incoming Netflix aggressor, it’s going to have to pull its finger out and secure more of these TV content deals. Still, as a LoveFilm subscriber I’m pretty stoked about access to the Morse collection — everyone loves a good murder mystery, right?
Think it’s also Ch4 too, as I watched some episodes of Peep Show on Loveflim last night on my PS3.
I think peep show’s been there for a while, but Ch4 has always had a great back catalogue online, it’s BBC and ITV that don’t keep shows streaming very long.
Yeah, LoveFilm has had a few UK TV shows for a while. Unfortunately they’re quite difficult to find. I really hope they sort out their TV interface into series, rather than a list of individual episodes mixed in with everything else. Bit of a mess right now.
Great news, I can finally check out the Spooks series which I managed to miss altogether, although I am disappointed that their IOS app is blocked on jail broken devices
Good idea. I lost touch when they changed format to the one long storyline through a series. But to be honest I lost interest after they got rid of Tom Quinn.
Yeah me too, maybe it’s time to re-watch it. Giz Spooks watching marathon anyone?
Anything they add like this is great news, but I really hope they improve the browsing and search functions on their site if they want to make the most of it.
There must be a way of searching for a series and then listing a series, and then a season and then episodes, rather than just an entire list of separate episodes…unless i’m missing something here…?
Nope you’re not, it’s a right mess. They should definitely follow Netflix’s lead here. It’s navigation for TV series is stellar.
A pity that Lovefilm’s streaming service is absolutely and utterly useless then.
For a start, from this month, you can only watch it on the website with Silverlight installed. That’s Linux out then. Not to mention the cretinous fact that the Xbox and PS3 apps only stream a tiny selection of shit movies – no TV at all – and that the Android app doesn’t even stream AT ALL, it just allows you to book more crap to have sent to you.
Netflix, if it has even a fraction of the huge library it has in the States available over here, is going to walk all over LoveFilm without even trying.
It baffles me even further that Amazon are the ones running this company now, but then Amazon have really never given a shit about the UK anyway.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the extra moronic fact that the streaming is SD only – even on the consoles for streaming films. Insanely ridiculous.