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LoveFilm adds ABC on-demand television in ongoing Netflix battle

Amazon-owned LoveFilm is striking back at rival Netflix by bringing inane, dull, and tedious television in the UK market. And there was me thinking five channels were enough.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor

Amazon continues its one-upmanship on rival Netflix by snapping up ABC television content and bringing its to its UK customers.

UK users can numb their minds with ever-enthralling content from shows including but not limited to the six seasons of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Brother's and Sisters, and Grey's Anatomy.

While they won't be available from the word go, shows will be available as soon as the series' complete on regular television first. But some television shows will be available before the new series airs on the telly.

This comes as the battle between Amazon-owned LoveFilm and Netflix rages on, though not quite mimicking seasons of Sparta.

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Last week, rather coincidentally on the Netflix launch day, LoveFilm announced it has 2 million members across the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany. Netflix, still in its European infancy, can only say it has a few thousand.

But the problem is for streaming customers is that while LoveFilm and Netflix are chopping away at each other to try and rival each others' services, they are not only inking their similar deals, but entirely different ones.

Netflix is trying to gain whatever ground it can in its 'UK test-case' for wider Europe, and Amazon is striking back by following the same lines of negotiation, often with Netflix's partners.

LoveFilm has Sony Pictures, eOne, and StudioCanal, while Netflix has Mirimax, MGM, and Lionsgate. You can see the two both offer films, but it's like having a Blu-ray disc in an ordinary DVD-player half the time.

Having said that, unless you are a serious media junkie, one subscription rather than both will probably suffice for most users.

I haven't seen the ending to Lost yet. I imagine it was probably all a magical drug-induced dream, concocted by a lone psychopath in a mental institution. Probably. I got horrendously bored half way through the third-season.

Image source: ABC.

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