Amazon’s LoveFilm Strikes Streaming Deals With BBC, ITV
6 Jan, 2012 By: Erik Gruenwedel
Amazon Jan. 6 said it signed separate deals with BBC Worldwide and broadcaster ITV to license TV content rights for its United Kingdom-based LoveFilm streaming service.
BBC titles include “Doctor Who,” critically acclaimed “Life On Mars,” spy drama “Spooks,” miniseries Whitechapel and documentaries such as Planet Earth.
The deal is similar to a pact signed last month between BBC Worldwide and Netflix. Netflix is slated to launch streaming service in the United Kingdom and Ireland this month.
With ITV, LoveFilm gets streaming access to new and archived content, including “Marchlands” and “Above Suspicion,” as well as classic crime series “Prime Suspect” and “Inspector Morse” and British dramas such as “Cold Feet” and “Secret Diary of a Call Girl.”
“We are thrilled to be bringing together great British TV content with Europe’s leading film subscription service,” LoveFilm CEO Simon Calver said in a statement. “This gives [us] an even more powerful, unique offering of instant programming for our members to view across a growing number of platforms.”
LoveFilm, which also offers by-mail disc rentals of more than 70,000 titles, has about 1.9 million monthly subscribers throughout parts of Western Europe.
Streamed content can be watched on TV via broadband-enabled PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Apple iPad, smart TVs and Blu-ray Disc players and Microsoft Xbox 360.
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