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Amazon Prime + LoveFilm Instant: How will the changes affect you?

Amazon has now migrated LoveFilm customers to its main site, how's the switch going for you?

Amazon has now migrated LoveFilm members over to the newly created Amazon Instant Video. The new service includes not only video streaming but also lets you manage your postal disc rentals. If you didn’t previously have a LoveFilm account then you’ll need one to continue using the service.

Your Watchlist, Rental List and account settings should have been transferred over. Your current subscription should also have been transferred over, and you should still continue to pay the same amount. However, we couldn’t find anywhere in the new interface where we could see the details of our current deal including how many discs we’re allowed and how much we pay for that deal, or anywhere to cancel or amend this.

Amazon Prime + LoveFilm Instant

The rental list looks to be intact, but at present it’s showing no dispatched discs and we haven’t has the usual email from Lovefilm to tell us which discs are coming next, hopefully these will resume, but if not it’s a big loss in our eyes.

We’re also a little concerned that the Manage Your Prime Membership page says we’ll be charged £5.99 on the 23rd of June for one month of Prime Instant Video, which should be included in our postal rental deal at £9.99 a month.

Hopefully all this will be made clear soon, and we have contacted Amazon’s representatives for clarification. If you’re having any problems with the service being transferred then please contact us on seth@expertreviews.co.uk and let us know.

ORIGINAL STORY :In a confusing move, Amazon has decided to combine its Amazon Prime shopping service with its Netflix-rivalling streaming video service – currently branded as LoveFilm Instant. Amazon took full control of the company back in 2011.

The new combined service, called catchily Amazon Prime Instant Video, will provide both free next-day delivery for shopping and a large catalogue of films or TV shows to watch instantly online. It’s a strange combination, presuming that customers of one service will want the other.

So how will the merger effect current and potential customers of both:

Current AMAZON PRIME members

Current Amazon Prime customers will see a huge price hike from £49 a year to £79 a year for their service, a big jump if you don’t want or use the video streaming part of the deal. Current members will get free streaming at the current price until their next yearly renewal date, but then the new price will kick in.

The price hike means Amazon Prime now costs around the same every month as a single one-day delivery (£6) or two small first-class deliveries (£5.50). If you order a lot of stuff on Amazon, but hate waiting for it then Prime is still a good choice, but there will be some for whom it’s now overpriced.

Current LOVEFILM members

A quick survey of the office shows that Amazon has not sent out emails informing LoveFilm customers of the new offer available from it parent company, Amazon. Current LoveFilm instant subscribers should seriously consider cancelling their £6 a month subscriptions and take out the special offer for the combined Prime/LoveFilm service which costs just£50 for a year (only available for 5 days to customers new to Prime).

Those on combined streaming and postal disc deals however are best to stay put, as there are no postal discs on offer through Prime, and the streaming part of their combined service is largely subsidised by the disc rental.

New customers

If you’ve been considering getting either service then now is the time! For the next five days you can sign up to Amazon Prime (and get free streaming) for just £50 for a year, that’s £22 cheaper than streaming alone cost previously.

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