Amazon-owned LoveFilm has signed new streaming deals with ITV and the BBC, as the online video service looks to boosting its UK television archive ahead of Netflix’s launch in the UK.
The deals mark the biggest two TV content agreements signed by LoveFilm to date and covers hundreds of recent and archive titles.
The ITV pact spans recent programmes such as Marchlands and Above Suspicion and older series including Prime Suspect, Inspector Morse, Cold Feet and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
The deal builds on a previous subscription video-on-demand pact, struck between LoveFilm and ITV Studios, which covered older programmes, such as Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Cracker and Brideshead Revisited.
A LoveFilm spokesperson said that the new ITV agreement was a “much fuller, broader and more recent flagship content deal.” ITV Player remains the exclusive home for ITV’s catch-up content.
The BBC deal, with commercial arm BBC Worldwide, includes series such as Doctor Who, Life on Mars, Spooks and Planet Earth. It’s the first time any BBC content has been available to stream on LoveFilm.
However, the two firms have had a relationship for several years, with BBC titles previously available to rent through LoveFilm’s mail-order DVD rental service. The iPlayer similarly remains home to all the BBC’s catch-up content.
Last month BBC Worldwide sold a similar raft of content to Netflix for its launch in the UK and Ireland later this quarter.
This marked the first major TV content deal Netflix had tied up in the UK and included shows such as Doctor Who, Torchwood and Spooks. BBC Worldwide content is already available on Netflix in North and Latin America.
“We are thrilled to be bringing together great British TV content with Europe’s leading film subscription service. This gives LoveFilm an even more powerful, unique offering of instant programming for our members to view across a growing number of platforms,” said LoveFilm CEO Simon Calver.
