Amazon-owned Lovefilm, which competes with Netflix in the UK, has signed a multi-year content deal with Twentieth Century Fox, giving Lovefilm’s UK members streaming access to recent and forthcoming movies and TV series in the so-called ‘second pay window’. The move comes as the connected TV business is heating up in the UK, with Google TV finally making its way here too.
The film deal will start with titles theatrically released in the UK in 2011, which will be made available to Lovefilm subscribers around March 2013.
Members will also get access to Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution content such as motorcycle drama “Sons of Anarchy” and all seasons of “24”, “Prison Break”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and its spin-off “Angel”.
The deal covers all of Lovefilm’s platforms including PC, Mac, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Apple iPad and Internet-connected TV sets and Blu-ray players.
It joins other deals Lovefilm has signed in the past 12 months, including agreements with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, NBC Universal, Entertainment One, STUDIOCANAL, Disney, ABC, BBC and ITV.
Back in May Lovefilm did a multi-year deal with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution, which offers members access to streaming titles from Universal Pictures during the second pay window.
Amazon purchased Lovefilm back in January 2011, after holding a large minority stake in the company for some time, and has lately been been trying to wean itself off of DVD rentals like its U.S. competitor.
The company now has over 2 million members in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and hosts over 70,000 titles, DVD, games and streaming titles combined.