Discerning Viewing

I have finally cancelled my LoveFilm subscription this week. I’d threatened to do this for a while but I put it off until  after we had watched series 6 of Game of Thrones on DVD. Well we’ve watched it and I’ve finally hit the cancel button.

Renting DVDs through the post was big business at one time but, with the growth of streaming services, it is now a somewhat minority pursuit with the main appeal being for those who live out in the sticks with low bandwidth broadband connections. As far as I know there are only two major DVD through the post services left: LoveFilm, which is hidden away on the Amazon website, and Cinema Paridiso which always has had a cult following for its extensive World Cinema section.

For anyone with a decent broadband connection, the streaming alternative would seem the obvious choice but I still rather like getting the DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Partly this is because the extras on the discs are usually not available on the streamed option but also because I do like the idea of waiting to see what comes through the post. All the items should be something that we wanted to see from the Rental List but, recently, we have been finding some of the films to be a chore and, on a couple of occasions, discs have been sent back unwatched as we really couldn’t remember why it was added to the rental list in the first place. In short, we were just running out of decent films to watch.

I suppose the problem is that we don’t have that much time to watch TV on our own and there is a plethora of  viewing material already on broadcast TV (including a few movie channels) without even getting to the new content that is finding its way through to the pay-per-view market. Ultimately, I think we will go back to the days of the video hire shop and just rent out films that we really want to watch but this time it will be by the medium of streaming services.

However, for what it is worth, I still think the DVD rental services are very good value and I could see us going for one again, even if just for a few months - probably when Game of Thrones Series 7 is available to rent.