LoveFilm raises the stakes this morning in its battle with Netflix to dominate the UK streaming market. The Amazon-owned service says it has an exclusive multiyear license with NBCUniversal International Television Distribution for Universal Studios titles in the second pay window — which typically begins more than a year after a film first appears in theaters. The deal will provide LoveFilm with titles including It’s Complicated, Nanny McPhee Returns, Leap Year, Green Zone, The Wolfman, Fast And Furious 5, Bridesmaids, Snow White and the Huntsman, Bourne Legacy, Dr Seuss’ The Lorax and Safe House. LoveFilm also has rights to films from Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Entertainment One and STUDIOCANAL. The goal is “to deliver the widest choice of content on as many platforms as possible,” says LoveFilm’s Jim Buckle. Its videos can be streamed to more than 175 devices including PCs, Macs, Playstation3, Xbox 360, iPads, and Internet-connected TV sets and Blu-ray players.

Interesting. It’s a shame that they can’t work something out with Universal for the rental side of things – I’m a LoveFilm customer in the UK and we’re not able to rent Universal titles through their postal service. I can buy them from Amazon (the LoveFilm website gives me helpful links) but I can’t rent them.
Whatever the spat between them is, as a customer it sucks that we don’t have this choice and that we don’t seem to have any explanation for their absence, either.
Ouch