Amazon's LOVEFiLM Inks Channel 4 Deal For TV Show Boost

Amazon's LOVEFiLM streaming media service has further pared the TV show gap between it and arch-rival Netflix, inking a deal with the UK's Channel 4 for a jolt of content. Forming a "4oD collection" that will be specially branded on LOVEFiLM's site, the deal will initially include Peep Show, Father Ted, The Inbetweeners, and other shows, but is expected to grow to all but replace your Channel 4 box-sets.

That includes the full Shameless collection of all seven series, as well as The IT Crowd, along with older titles from Channel 4's back-catalog. In fact, Channel 4 has three decades of content to raid, though it's unclear how much of it will end up on LOVEFiLM.

Although not as well known as Netflix, LOVEFiLM has quietly been growing in Europe and elsewhere. The service is offered in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, and was acquired by Amazon two years ago.

The new content helps balance the differences between the Netflix and LOVEFiLM, the latter of which was struggling in terms of TV offerings. Analysis from UK firm Oric suggested that while LOVEFiLM had the advantage in movie titles for UK viewers, TechCrunch reported last week, Netflix was beating it in TV show content.