A press release issued yesterday by the movie rental giant suggests it’s looking into providing content for the PlayStation 3, amongst other new formats. LOVEFiLM says it has signed a “significant agreement with US-based Widevine” naming the American company as the provider of DRM for the subscription service.
This, says the bulletin, will allow LOVEFiLM’s digital content to be “accessed on the broadest cross section of devices”.
Widevine is apparently deployed by “major Internet content services and large cable, satellite and telecommunication companies launching over-the-top strategies” and the press release cites native support in lots of brands of network connected consumer electronics “including televisions, Blu-ray players, mobile devices, gaming systems and more.”
A PR rep for Widevine told Edge that the company already serves video content on PS3 and Wii and that “both are near term roadmaps” for Lovefilm. “In addition to Wii and PS3 on the near term roadmap for Widevine to enable for Lovefilm are iPad, Mac, PC, Andriod, Humax STB and SharpTV,” the spokesperson said.
bunimomike
That’ll be interesting as LF is so damned popular. I bet cc_star will be more than curious as to what they offer.
Is LF very much a global thing or UK centric?
Erroneus
They are located in UK, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway. Lovefilm bought Digitarian to enter the Danish market and Boxman to enter rest of Scandinavia.
So there is a chance this could be for the entire EU.
cc_star
Europes largest rental service.
And I think they’ll offer what is already available in the LoveFilmPlayer which, although improving isn’t great.
The biggest win will be in the competition it provides to PSN Video Store & Boxee (or whatever gave us the free £10 a few months ago.
hairfreax
That would be Blinkbox and rather good they are to
cc_star
Yes they’re amazing & so is their tech.
I’ve watched 3 films from them and all of them worked far better than watching a 30min program on iPlayer
gurglesletch
Never heard of it in the US besides this site.
spooner_22
what else can they offer other than renting games which they already do?? i dont get it
nofi
Films?
hairfreax
Clue is in the name
spooner_22
yea well thats just stupid and pointless then…you can already watch films online on lovefilm…how uninteresting
cc_star
Yeah, because watching in a spare room on a desktop, or balancing your laptop for 2 to 3 hours whilst watching on its small screen, is as good as movie watching gets?
Or watching on your main TV in the house via the PS3/Wii?
cc_star
Will be interested to see how this pans out, because Sony have a vested in PSN Video store & Qriocity (if it comes to console)
Although I love LoveFilm’s DVD/Blu-ray/game rental service their streaming content still leaves a lot to be desired. There is quite a bit included in the bundle alot of people already have but the good stuff is premium and always with digital content is expensive. Wjen you think about it getting through about 8 Blu-rays and 4 games (as I hang on them longer than the films) for only £14.99 a month makes paying £4 for a solitary streamed rental seem a bit expensive.
I also wonder why Sharp TVs and not Samsung or Sony’s range of WiFi TVs, but there is a healthy range of other devices, the biggest of which is Humax, at present the sell something like 90% of the UK’s Freeview+ & Freeview+HD boxes.
badgersnapper68
I’m thinking if a streamed service was offered at a monthly rate – say £14.99 for unlimited (or whatever you were signed to) – I think they’d get killed in the rush. Such a service could possibly blow digital distribution wide open and send it mass market in a much more meaningful way.
cc_star
Didn’t realise LoveFilm was already a service on Sony’s range of connected TVs http://www.sony.co.uk/hub/bravia-lcd-televisions/2/2/article/id/1237477951536
Pro-Tip: Connected TVs will be a bigger growth area than 3D for a year or two, so if you’re in the market why not explore the TVs which have both, which quite a few are.
sully1311
yep i use it on my new bravia! Although they need to get a lot more blockbuster movies on there. And new ones!
GodDarnKat
I think its going to be a number of years before the various bits of tech truely come together. The main issues still seem to be image quality, although depending on how picky you are – this may not have a huge impact on any near-future purchases. Personally, I find the properly coded and sourced blu ray discs to still retain the crown – the picture/audio quality is sublime. I’m yet to be convinced by current PS3 offerings, picking up blu ray films is often only a few pounds more than the download… so currently, whats the point ?
dude90
If we do get LoveFilm on PS3, then I might not bother about using MUBI.
tom1234321
Ever since LOVEFiLM advertised their membership with Sony on their internet TV and membership with other companies for blu-ray players, I always suggested and thought LOVEFiLM would come to ps3 one day. I even made a post about it on a website. ( Topic now deleted ). Guess I was right?
Don’t see why it can’t happen, also I’ve used LOVEFiLM in the past and was very pleased with them.
iAvernus
Wow… slow day of news =)