Lovefilm cuts back streaming offerings

One of the big selling points of a streaming library is the sheer number of films and TV shows it offers. Today Lovefilm's total dropped by more than 60, as it axed Doctor Who and a plethora of other shows.

This marks an about face by Lovefilm – once owned by Amazon, sold, then bought back by the retailer – as it has been massively increasing its library in order to compete with not only rival streaming service Netflix, which launched in the UK earlier this year, but traditional TV and film cable outlet, Sky.

While of course some of the streaming shows taken down won't be missed by many, there are some that seem like they must have quite a following and a good viewership. The list includes:

Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Cold Feet, Inspector Morse, Poirot, Little Bratin, Only Fools and Horses, Porridge, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, The Royle Family, Wallander, Walking with Dinosaurs, Blackadder, Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles (deleting that is a crime) and many more. The full list is available over at Oric if you want to check your favourite show isn't getting dumped.

A lot of the titles appear to be older ones that might appeal to quite a niche audience, but still there's some popular stuff in there. Torchwood, Faulty Towers, Gavin and Stacey; people have to be watching this stuff.

While it's certainly an odd move to be removing these, LoveFilm has provided a statement in response to questioning: “Our commitment to expanding our catalogue is unwavering. LOVEFiLM has signed content deals with major film and TV studios including Miramax, Twentieth Century Fox, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney, ABC, BBC, ITV, STUDIOCANAL, eOne and DHX Media.”

“The LOVEFiLM catalogue is constantly growing and evolving. From time to time titles do come off the service to make way for new and exciting additions. In the next few weeks we’ll be adding Scrubs Season 1-5, Downton Abbey Season 1-3 and Sons of Anarchy Seasons 1-4, enhancing our available TV content yet again, and ensuring we have a good balance of both old favourites plus the latest offerings from the small screen.”

So oldies have been dropped for more contemporary offerings?

Most of the shows will be removed from LoveFilm instant by the end of December. The others will be trickling away throughout January and February.

KitGuru Says: I' don't really get this one. Why remove all those shows? Why do you guys think?

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