Lovefilm
Products
- DVD / Blu -Ray rental by mail
- Video on Demand Template: Infobox Company / Maintenance / products
LOVEFiLM (proper spelling LOVEFiLM ) was one of Europe's largest online lending of movie DVDs and Blu-rays, also the Amazon company offered video-on -demand. In January 2012 LOVEFiLM was known to have crossed the border of Europe's two million customers.
The company's headquarters was in London, the German headquarters is located in Munich Amazon.de GmbH. The shipment of volumes was performed by a transit center in Elmshorn near Hamburg.
On February 26, 2014 LOVEFiLM was merged with the Amazon Prime selection of Amazon Instant Video. Here, the complete LOVEFiLM offer was implemented.
Formation
LOVEFiLM was founded in December 2003 by the London-based media company Arts Alliance Media. The company was formed by the gradual acquisition and organization of different societies, where the three main actors Online Rentals Limited were ( Operating as a DVDsOnTap ) ScreenSelect Iceland and video here. Online Rentals Limited was established in May 2002 by Paul Gardner and Graham Bosher in Harlow, England. In September 2003, on the one hand William Reeve and Alex Chesterman followed with Screen Select and in the same month Saul Klein launched the service Video Iceland - both companies were founded in London. In October 2003 Online Rentals Limited by Arts Alliance Ventures, a family-owned investment company was bought out. In the following December DVDsOnTap announced occurring in the future under the brand LOVEFiLM and summoned the same time Mark Livingstone as the new CEO.
ScreenSelect expanded its market position in the meantime by buying up their own businesses. After the acquisition of in movie was announced in December 2003, followed in September 2004, a merger with Video Iceland, with the management and the brand of ScreenSelect retained and fused with the equity capital of Iceland Video. In June 2005 ScreenSelect bought the company DVDs365, owner of mailbox Movies, MovieTrak and Qflicks. LOVEFiLM responded a few months later with the acquisition of Webflix. In addition, both companies were endeavoring to enhance their position in the Scandinavian market. ScreenSelect took BraFilm in Sweden and Norway, while LOVEFiLM Boxman bought up in Sweden and Denmark.
By 2006 ScreenSelect had its competitors LOVEFiLM clearly distanced. The hitherto 100,000 LOVEFiLM customers was offset by 200,000 subscribers to the ScreenSelect services. In April 2006, merged the two companies, the platform and the management of ScreenSelect were retained. The new company was, however, placed under the brand LOVEFiLM and operated since from his headquarters in Acton, West London. At the end of 2008 LOVEFiLM replaced the brands ScreenSelect, Brafifilm and Boxman Europe.
In Germany LOVEFiLM offers his film offer since October 2006. In February 2008, the company bought the DVD rental business from Amazon Germany for the German and British markets. In return, Amazon was with a share of 42 percent of the largest shareholder of LoveFilm. Other shareholders were next to Amazon and Art Alliance Ventures private equity firms Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures and Octopus Ventures.
In May 2010 LOVEFiLM extended its offer to Title Without Youth release. However, these are only available for customers who have completed the PostIdent for secure personal identification after login. LOVEFiLM created thereby for the customers PostIdent coupon with individually specified reference number for the company's internal allocation.
On 20 January 2011, announced that LOVEFiLM will be completely taken over by Amazon. The total amount of the acquisition amounted to almost 250 million euros, according to media reports. Since LOVEFiLM part of the online bookshop Amazon and is thus owned by Amazon.eu.
In November 2012 it was decided that from 1 January 2013 Christoph Schneider takes up the role of managing director of Ernst Trapp. Schneider joined mid-2012 at the company and is responsible for the expansion and establishment of the Video on Demand offer in the German market.
Functioning of the disc shipment
After signing up for the service, customers could the desired movies as DVD, Blu- ray Disc, or a 3D Blu -ray set from the offer on its own rental list. Once the selected films was available, they were sent by mail to the specified customer address. The system detected the shipping order it based on the user-specified priorities and the availability of titles in our shipping center. The loan period was not limited at LOVEFiLM. The return of the films was carried out on a pre-paid return envelope, and was accordingly charged to the sender. The dispatch of other films was once the borrowed titles were again received by LOVEFiLM. Since it always acted within this process to ordinary letters of Deutsche Post, an accurate tracking has been available for either the transmitter or receiver. However, information on the current processing and shipping status of the discs were given within the customer account.
How the Video -on- Demand Service
From December 2010 LOVEFiLM offered in addition to Disc shipping also a video-on -demand service. This resulted in a certain range of titles to be played back directly on the PC or another compatible device. The video - on-demand services were clients from the digital packet flat rate with unlimited time credit available. The end of 2011 LOVEFiLM announced the conversion of its streaming technology on Microsoft Silverlight. Up to this time the service was based on the Adobe Flash Player. This approach was criticized by some groups of users, as since that date computer with Linux or UNIX systems was no longer supported. Likewise, users of Apple PCs could not access the service with an operating system version of 10.5 or lower.
As of May 30, 2012 LOVEFiLM offered a portion of its on- demand offerings also in high-definition quality. A data transfer rate of at least 6 Mbit / s 720p to reproducing contents in the resolution required. 1080p titles require a bandwidth of at least 12 Mbit / s. The video -on -demand system automatically chose the best possible quality to ensure uninterrupted play and adapted itself well while playing for the available Internet speed. Also, the transmitted sound was dependent on the available bandwidth and ranged from a minimum of 128 Kbit / s and a maximum of 512 kbit / s
Currently available packages
How many of the available titles could be borrowed on a monthly basis or viewed online, depended on the booked loan package. These packages differ with respect to the number of discs that could be borrowed per month, the number of discs that a customer could borrow at the same time, and the availability of video-on -demand service. While in the smallest package only two discs per month, and these could be borrowed in succession, it was the largest flat rate package 2 for example, two discs at the same time and an unlimited number per month. The video-on -demand service customers stood in the package Digital flat rate unlimited. The packages Ultimately, flatrate flatrate 1 and 2 contained in addition to the DVD and Blu -ray rental service are also an unlimited streaming Flash.
Supported Devices
In addition to playing on the PC, the video-on -demand service could also be on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, the Wii, all Internet-enabled Sony BRAVIA television from the production of 2010, Samsung Smart TVs of the 2012er and 2013er generation, internet-enabled Sony Blu-ray players and the Apple iPad to be used as well as LG TV. Although offered LOVEFiLM also apps for the Apple iPhone and Android devices, but here there was only the ability to manage one's own customer account as well as the rental list. The service was also available on the published in October 2012 tablet computers Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. Playback of HD content was offered on all devices, with the exception of Apple iPads possible. 18 content could be accessed only on the PC, the PS3 and the iPad via streaming. The reason the lack of PIN entry way of the other equipment was called.
Billing model
LOVEFiLM offered new customers the opportunity to first use the service for a free trial period. Within this period was for the customers always have the option to terminate his package on the corresponding functionality in the account. The monthly contribution for the selected package was made within the test period, no termination, as were automatically taken after its expiry. Payment was made either via direct debit or credit card.
There was criticism that already had to be given payment information such as bank details or credit card numbers to open a trial subscription. The company wrote on the official website that regardless of the account status of each participant valid payment information was needed. This is being done to verify the identity of customers and to protect themselves against theft or fraud. These data were used in addition, the user should opt for a paid continuation of membership.
Advertising and marketing
Since 2010 LOVEFiLM switched regularly commercials on tv. The commercials were doing spoken by Manfred Lehmann, who is known to a wider audience, especially as voice actors Bruce Willis and Gérard Depardieu.