screenselect.co.uk acquires In Movies Ltd
Online DVD rental company screenselect.co.uk today announced that it has acquired the business of In Movies Ltd, the longest established industry player, resulting in the creation of the industry market leader.
Screenselect.co.uk launched in September 2003 with a mission to
"amazon" high street video rental. Backed by Simon Murdoch, the founder of amazon.co.uk, and with a number of the original amazon.co.uk launch team on board, screenselect.co.uk now offers the ‘largest DVD library on the planet’ with over 16,000 unique titles (over 10x more than the average video rental store).
In Movies was founded in 1999 by Laurence Penn and became the first UK business to offer an online DVD subscription service. With immediate effect, Laurence Penn is joining the screenselect.co.uk board. Screenselect.co.uk will also own In Movie’s exclusive editorial content, which has been built up over the past four years.
"The success of Netflix in the United States demonstrates that online rental has the potential to transform the way consumers watch, rent and own DVDs," says Laurence Penn. "Screenselect.co.uk has the funding and the know-how to be as successful in the UK and this deal allows all of us at In Movies to be part of the UK market leader."
"This is an important milestone for Screenselect.co.uk,” says managing director William Reeve. “First of all we can benefit from the invaluable expertise of Laurence and the In Movies team. Secondly, we're able to bulk up our customer and stock numbers much faster than we can do organically. And finally, this deal secures our market leadership in the UK - it makes us the biggest player, allowing us to benefit from economies of scale by deploying our sophisticated proprietary fulfillment technology across a larger operation."
Screenselect.co.uk offers 24/7 online ordering, free delivery and
returns and no late fines - ever. With Screenselect.co.uk’s £14.99 monthly fee, subscribers keep a revolving library of three DVDs at a time, which they can exchange as often as they like. Screenselect.co.uk offers not only the largest selection of titles but also the best value available in the UK.
After signing up, subscribers to screenselect.co.uk build a list of
titles that they wish to see from the 16,000+ titles on offer and
prioritise which they want to see first. Screenselect.co.uk sends out 3 immediately and once a subscriber has finished with a disc, they simply mail it back in a pre-paid envelope and the next title from the customer’s wish-list is sent out first class in the post.
As subscribers watch and rate DVDs they also benefit from
Screenselect.co.uk’s unique personalisation technology which recommends other titles for them.
With the aim of further accelerating its growth, screenselect.co.uk has embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign that has seen inserts placed in several hundred thousand DVD player boxes to be sold in the run up to Christmas. Screenselect.co.uk is also currently offering anyone who signs up a free, no obligation trial to the service.
I have been using this service in the last few weeks and it has worked very well. Their website makes selecting the movie you want very easy, and they email you when they send out a new DVD.
