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Paul Gardner
Alex Chesterman<br>
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Paul Gardner<br>
Saul Klein<br>
William Reeve
|location_city=London
|location_city=London
|location_country=United Kingdom
|location_country=United Kingdom

Revision as of 15:51, 28 September 2010

For films titled Love see movies by release date: 1919, 1927, 1971, 1991, 2005, 2008-Feb, 2008-July, and 2010.
LoveFilm International Ltd.
Company typeLimited
IndustryElectronic commerce
Founded2002
FounderGraham Bosher
Paul Gardner
HeadquartersNo. 9,

6 Portal Way,
London W3 6RU

United Kingdom,
London
,
United Kingdom
Area served
UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
Key people
Simon Calver, CEO;
Jim Buckle, CFO;
Simon Morris, CMO
ProductsOnline DVD rental
Revenuec.US$150 million (2009)
Number of employees
250-499
DivisionsLoveFilm UK, LoveFilm Germany, LoveFilm Sweden, LoveFilm Denmark, LoveFilm Norway.
WebsiteLoveFilm corporate

LoveFilm (official typeset LOVEFiLM) is a British DVD rental company which provides online DVD rentals and resale, Blu-ray, console game rental and online fim viewing in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. It operates the LoveFilm website, as well as providing the actual website and delivery infrastructure for an array of branded services in partnership with other British companies.

In January 2009, LoveFilm claimed to have over 1,000,000 members, over 67,000 titles, and over 4 million rentals per month across five countries. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the latest being the Amazon DVD rental activities, LoveFilm has, in a few years, become the dominant online DVD rental outlet in the UK.

The company used to offer a download service alongside postal delivery, but this ceased (at least temporarily) on 23 February 2009.[1] Instead, the company has started a "watch online" service which offers over 3,500 films available to watch as part of subscription. This online viewing is available free for subscribers who have opted for one of their unlimited monthly rental plans; there is also some pay-per-view content available to all.

History

LoveFilm has grown due to 10 mergers and the acquisition of several other on-line DVD rental companies - the three main ones being Online Rentals (the original company using the LoveFilm brand name), ScreenSelect and Video Island.

  • In May 2002, Paul Gardner and Graham Bosher launched Online Rentals Limited (trading as DVDsOnTap), operating out of Harlow, Essex. In September 2003, Alex Chesterman and William Reeve launched ScreenSelect, operating out of Acton in West London. And in the same month Saul Klein launched Video Island, operating out of Kings Cross in central London.
  • In October 2003, Online Rentals Ltd sold to Arts Alliance Ventures. Shortly after, Paul Gardner left the business.
  • In February 2004, the business rebranded as LoveFilm, appointed Mark Livingstone CEO, and relocated to much larger premises in the Spire Green Business Park in Harlow, Essex.
  • In September 2004, ScreenSelect merged with Video Island and adopted ScreenSelect brand name with Video Island being the holding company name; shortly afterwards, Saul Klein left the business. In December 2004, Amazon launched its DVD rental service in the UK[2]; it followed in Germany six months later.
  • The year 2005 saw both LoveFilm and ScreenSelect grow rapidly as fierce rivals. LoveFilm reached 100,000 customers in March 2005, a month in which it shipped almost 700,000 rentals. Over this period ScreenSelect reached a similar number of customers. In June 2005, ScreenSelect acquired DVDs365 (owner of Mailbox Movies, MovieTrak and Qflicks[3]) and a few months later LOVEFILM.com acquired Webflix.[4]. But as 2005 wore on, ScreenSelect was able to outgrow LoveFilm significantly; by the end of 2005, ScreenSelect was almost twice as large as LoveFilm with around 200,000 customers versus LoveFilm's 110,000.
  • In April 2006, with ScreenSelect by this point approaching quarter of a million customers, LoveFilm decided to throw in its lot with ScreenSelect. The combined business chose LoveFilm as its brand, appointed Simon Calver CEO, William Reeve COO and Simon Morris CMO. Charles Gurassa was appointed Chairman [5]. Mark Livingstone left the business. Alex Chesterman followed a few months later.
  • By February 2008, with Amazon's DVD rental service having failed to match LoveFilm's, Amazon sold its DVD rental service (a UK/German business) to LoveFilm, and in return Amazon became the largest shareholder of LoveFilm.[6] [7][8]
  • In July 2010 LOVEFILM boosts it's "Watch Now" technology with Widevine video optimization. [9]

Besides Amazon and Arts Alliance Ventures, venture capital firms Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit and Index Ventures also have stakes in LoveFilm.[10]

Operate rental services for other companies

Besides its own DVD rental and purchase sites, LoveFilm also runs a number of such sites on behalf of other companies. The following is a list of current such white label services operated by LoveFilm.[11]

Advertising

LoveFilm originally used partners to advertise its services but started to run TV adverts from 2006. Since then, the amount of white label services and partners has decreased, possibly due to increased brand awareness of the LoveFilm name. Since advertising on a regular basis on TV the company has used British male actors for voice overs - Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy and Ray Winstone{[2]}. As of 2009, the theme song for the TV ads is "It Must Be Love" by Madness. LoveFilm advertise in multiple media - online, press, TV, train posters, door drops, promotions and even bathroom posters in clubs, pubs and service stations.

"Throttling" and dispute of fair usage policy

LoveFilm came in for criticism from users over its claim to offer "unlimited" DVD rentals. Some users reportedly found the company used long delays at the shipping stage to reduce the number of films a month a customer can rent. The company was subject of complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority over the use of the word "unlimited" in their advertising. The ASA upheld the complaint. It was revealed that they practised throttling, where high-volume customers may experience a greater likelihood of (slower) shipments from alternate warehouses, and selections from lower in their rental list. They are also less likely to receive replacement shipments on the same day a disc is received.[12] The company itself claimed that this "fair usage" policy means all customers get a similar service.

Dispute with Universal Pictures

In late November 2009, LoveFilm stopped adding new DVDs from the distributor Universal Pictures UK to the rental sector of their site. This made a number of films unavailable to users including Public Enemies, Brüno, Funny People and Inglourious Basterds.

The UK DVD rental news and reviews site ChooseDVDrental speculated that the dispute was a result of Universal Pictures holding out for more money for rental discs, comparing the stand-off to that between Universal Pictures in the US and Redbox DVD rental.[13]

References

  1. ^ LoveFilm download service now offline
  2. ^ Amazon launches DVD rental service
  3. ^ Screen Select merges with DVDs365
  4. ^ LoveFilm joins forces with Webflix
  5. ^ LOVEFiLM appoints Charles Gurassa as Chairman
  6. ^ LOVEFiLM to Acquire Amazon’s European DVD Rental Business - Amazon to become largest shareholder of LoveFilm
  7. ^ LoveFilm website
  8. ^ Amazon buys into Lovefilm
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ LoveFilm investors
  11. ^ LoveFilm's brands
  12. ^ Advertising Standards Authority adjudication upholding a complaint against LoveFilm. 9th August 2006.
  13. ^ Universal dispute leaves DVD renters without new releases
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