The LoveFilm by Post DVD rental service is set to cease its operate on 31st October this year. This comes from its owner, Amazon.
This news comes as Amazon cited a “decreasing demand” for the discs due to a growing number of customers streaming movies and TV series instead.
However, this move has in fact annoyed some fans, who argue that a wider range of films are available to rent via DVD and Blu-ray.
Founded in 2002, LoveFilm was acquired by Amazon in 2011, when it had more than 1.4 million subscribers.
If customers signed up to a monthly subscription fee, they could receive a DVD or Blu-ray disc of their choice in the post, which they would send back once they had finished watching it.
In the past seven years, some content has been available to access via online streaming services instead.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Amazon has said that it had planned to donate Lovefilm’s thousands of discs to “charity partners”.
Although, the spokesperson has not said how many individual discs the number amounts to, although it’s speculated to be over 80,000 titles.
“We have very much enjoyed delivering the Lovefilm by Post service to our customers,” said Amazon in a statement.
“However, over the last few years we’ve seen a decreasing demand for DVD and Blu-ray rental as customers increasingly move to streaming.
“We are committed to finding alternative roles for all Lovefilm employees within Amazon.”
Some fans aren’t happy about this news, and have voiced their opinions via social media and emails.
In a statement, customer Michael Harrison has said, “It’s not great, to be honest,”
“You don’t have to buffer it, or worry about pixelation,” he added.
“I live in a small town and we don’t have many shops around – it was great for me to get films posted to me.”
Another customer wrote on Twitter, “Very sad at the demise of Lovefilm.
“We’re old school in my house and still enjoy renting our DVDs.”
Amazon has published a help page on its website which includes a notification of the service’s closure.
