LoveFilm

Sadly all gone in the uk.

Gone all over the world, not just the UK. Survives apparently as a VoD service and two (yes two) stores, one in Australia and one in America. A far cry from the days when they had thousands of outlets across the world, including 800 in the UK.

Haunted by the success of Netflix, though things could have been so different as they apparently had an option to buy Netflix around the turn of the century, and then spent the rest of their business life trying (and failing) to play catch-up.

Well, it was LoveFilm that killed it off over here.

And where are LoveFilm now?

Acquired by Amazon so the founders could retire with a nice sum of money methinks.

Then handing piles of their discs to Ashens so he can make videos of him going through them

Ironic really, Lovefilm spent shed loads of time either buying or powering all the other DVD rental services and then they get bought out by Amazon themselves. £200m was the asking price apparently.

Though the idea of DVD rental was already dying by that point anyway, why wait for a DVD to be posted out to you (then have to post it back) when you can stream it online there and then.

Unless you exclusively watch summer blockbusters, not everything is available for streaming.

DVD Rental still lives on in the form of one company:
https://www.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/

I suppose it depends what you're looking for, some World Cinema and more obscure stuff you'll never find on the likes of Sky Cinema, Netflix or Amazon Video.

Yeah - which means it's now called Amazon Prime.

Not so much irony, just a business with a clear exit strategy. LoveFilm had previously bought Amazon's DVD rental service in the UK and Germany in exchange for Amazon taking a 30% stake. When LoveFilm sold to Amazon, it was the remaining 70% not already owned. And Amazon benefited greatly from LoveFilm's experience in the VOD market.

LoveFilm's influence on what became Amazon Prime Video should not be underestimated.