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LoveFilm isn’t going to keep shows in its catalogue forever, you might be disappointed to hear, with Amazon’s streaming service starting to attach expiry dates to shows that’ll see them delisted from the LoveFilm Instant on-demand service.
US classics Lost and its tribute show Flashforward will be disappearing at the end of the year according to expiry data gathered by listings site Oric, although it’s the classic British stuff that’s taking the biggest hit, with crusty old episodes of The Saint, Life on Mars, Porridge, Red Dwarf, Auf Widersehen Pet and many more set to erase themselves from LoveFilm over the next couple of months.
Also, your last chance to enjoy Billie Piper’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl will come on December 30th, so get in a few bottles of Baileys and draw the curtains for one last mammoth Billie matinee. [Oric via Cnet]
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This is quite a killer, actually. Makes me glad I went for Netflix. There are already free limited-time services out there for this content – obvious ones being 4OD and iPlayer (and iTV player, if anyone can put up with that terribly coded mess). Now 4OD keeps their old content, it does make you wonder what the benefit of Lovefilm is?
DVD’s Blu Rays and games
Can’t be arsed to wait!
Was just going to comment the same thing. The point of a streaming service is that if I decide I want to watch an episode of Doctor Who I can just look it up and stream it instantly. If half the shows I would want to watch aren’t there – I’ll unsubscribe.
Honestly, at one point I was subscribed to both Lovefilm and Netflix, and while I fell in love with Netflix, if something was on Lovefilm, but not on Netflix, it was easier to Google it and watch it illegally.
Exactly. The only reason I would download stuff illegally is convenience. It might sound like an excuse but it is still the best service. I can download almost literally whatever I like, with no restrictions, I can keep it in the folder I want to keep it in and I can watch it whenever I want – online or offline on any device.
If a service existed, where every single series I like is available on demand, with the same convenience of downloading ‘illegally’ – I would pay for it. I would prefer it, with all advantages around quality, sync, special features etc but with none of the disadvantages of LoveFilm, Netflix and so forth.
But until that exists it is not for me.
I agree. The content owners still don’t understand, bunch of f*#&ing idiots.
I’m just saying, that’s the point of love film, I don’t really stream or get movies, I just get new games. saying that I don’t even do that anymore, need to cancel it.
They’ve always done this to my knowledge. I was watching some animation series (I want to say Spectacular Spider-Man, but really can’t remember what it was at this time) a long while back, and was surprised to see it was expiring within a week of my discovering it. This wasn’t very long after they added streaming to their line-up.
And this is the exact reason I still buy everything I want on DVD/blu-ray, or at a push digital copy. Streaming services are relying on someone else to provide the media you want for the rest of your life! way too much trust there. I’d rather *mostly* own it myself.
The following comment goes for music as well as TV/film…
It’s about time the content industry signed up to a single platform to provide streaming access to most, if not all, of their content in a timely fashion.
I’m sick of having to wait for things to be released in certain countries. I’m sick of them thinking I’ll subscribe to Netflix, Lovefilm AND Sky just to have access to all content available.
I’ve been looking into buying a media streamer (something like a Roku, WD Live TV etc) and there’s nothing, as far as I can see, that has access to all platforms. Each device has a limitation (some don’t have Netflix, some don’t have Lovefilm, some don’t have iPlayer, some have no advanced setup options…) The only thing to do is to either build your own or buy an Xbox/PS3.
It’s no surprise people pirate things when it’s so bloody hard to get legal access!
What the government needs to do is make it illegal to obtain exclusive contracts for streaming under anti-competition laws. Then they all have to play on a level field, and you actually get competition on price and quality, rather than the blatant collusion we currently have.
I’ll just leave this here…