Lovefilm becomes Amazon Prime Instant Video today, brings along John Goodman

Lovefilm becomes Amazon Prime Instant Video today, offers John Goodman to celebrate
Alpha House is part of the deal for Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers

The Lovefilm Instant streaming service officially becomes Amazon Prime Instant Video on Wednesday, as the company ramps up the fight against an increasingly-dominant Netflix.

As announced earlier this month Amazon has combined the on-demand video service it already owned with its annual, next-day delivery subscription service, all for a grant total of £79 a year.

Current Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to access the new Instant Video service, without upgrading, but will need to pay the full whack next time Prime is up for renewal.

New customers can still sign up for Prime £49 at the time of writing (that'd be 5:30am GMT), in order to lock themselves in for a full year of viewing although that's likely to change to the new price imminently.

Existing Lovefilm customers can also switch over to an Amazon account as of right now.

Alphas and Betas

To commemorate the amalgamation of Amazon's two services, the company is pledging to continue its heavy investment in new and archive content, adding to the 15,000-title strong library of TV shows and movies.

The company's original series Alpha House, a political comedy staring John Goodman will be available in full at launch, while Betas a sitcom featuring a team of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs will land in the next few months.

Prime also has dibs on The Hangover Part III, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and plenty more hit movies and shows.

Will you miss Lovefilm? Do you think £79 all-in for next day delivery and instant video streaming is a swell deal or would you rather your Prime membership just stayed at £49? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.