Love Film - History

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 Limited (the original company), ScreenSelect and Video Island.

In May 2002, Paul Gardner and Graham Bosher launched Online Rentals Limited (trading as DVDsOnTap), based in Harlow, Essex.

In September 2003, William Reeve and Alex Chesterman launched ScreenSelect, based in Acton in West London. And in the same month Saul Klein launched Video Island, based in Kings Cross in central London.

In October 2003, Online Rentals Ltd was bought by Arts Alliance Ventures, a family-owned private equity firm. In December 2003, DVDsOnTap rebranded to LoveFilm, appointed Mark Livingstone as CEO, and relocated to much larger premises in the Spire Green Business Park in Harlow, Essex.

ScreenSelect led what became a clutch of mergers across the UK DVD rental industry. In December 2003, this began with the acquisition of In-Movies. In September 2004, ScreenSelect followed up with the merger with Video Island, which combined ScreenSelect's management and brand with Video Island's venture capital.

The year 2005 saw both LoveFilm and ScreenSelect grow rapidly as fierce rivals - with strong backers, these two firms leaped ahead of their rivals. LoveFilm reached 50,000 subscribers in December 2004, and shortly afterwards acquired the retail chain Choices' online business. By March 2005, it had reached 100,000 customers, and shipped almost 700,000 rentals. In June 2005, ScreenSelect acquired DVDs365 (owner of Mailbox Movies, MovieTrak and Qflicks) and a few months later LoveFilm acquired the tiny Webflix. Both rivals acquired a Scandinavian firm; ScreenSelect acquired BraFilm (a Swedish and Norwegian business), and LoveFilm acquired Boxman (operating in Sweden and Denmark).

By 2006 ScreenSelect had outgrown LoveFilm, with over 200,000 customers against LoveFilm's 100,000 users. In April 2006, LoveFilm and Screenselect merged using ScreenSelect's management and technology platform, but with the LoveFilm brand, and moved the headquarters to Acton - ScreenSelect's original base. By the end of 2006 the LOVEFiLM brand had replaced ScreenSelect, Brafilm and Boxman everywhere except Norway - which followed in 2008.

In February 2008, LoveFilm acquired Amazon's DVD rental business in the UK and German markets, and in return Amazon became the largest shareholder of LoveFilm.

Besides Amazon and Arts Alliance Ventures, venture capital firms Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures and Octopus Ventures also had stakes in LoveFilm.

In 2010, LoveFilm released their Playstation 3 online streaming service.

On 20 January 2011 it was announced that Amazon, which previously owned 32% of LoveFilm, would take full control of the company in an acquisition deal worth a reported £200m.

In September 2011, a LoveFilm app for the iPad was released to allow streaming films on iPad devices. The LoveFilm app was also released for the Xbox 360 in December 2011.

On 30 May 2012, LoveFilm partnered with NBC Universal to bring Universal films to their service, and also announced that they would be bringing HD Streaming to their services. HD Streaming is now available on LoveFilm.