In May 2002, Paul Gardner and Graham Bosher launched Online Rentals Limited (trading as DVDsOnTap), based in Harlow, Essex.

And in the same month Saul Klein launched Video Island, based in Kings Cross in central London, with backing from Simon Franks' Redbus Films.

[5] In June 2003, Ari Wegter, Lasse Stilvang and Joshua Mortensen had launched Digitarian in Denmark while Mattias Miksche and Jonas Svensson started Boxman in Stockholm.

The continental founder group played a critical role in the growth and development of Lovefilm in Scandinavia and Germany until exit to Amazon.

[6] In October 2003, Online Rentals Ltd was bought by Arts Alliance Ventures, a private equity firm owned by Thomas Hoegh.

The symbiotic relationship between the two sibling companies delivered a low cost-of-acquisition of customers and a higher attendance which, in sum, achieved a reinforcement of Lovefilm's business proposition.

The company then appointed Mark Livingstone as CEO, and relocated to much larger premises in the Spire Green Business Park in Harlow, Essex.

On 20 January 2011, it was announced that Amazon, which previously owned 32% of Lovefilm, would take full control of the company in an acquisition deal worth a reported £200 million.

Since advertising on a regular basis on TV the company used British male actors for voice overs – Simon Pegg, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy and Ray Winstone.

Some users reportedly found the company used long delays at the shipping stage to reduce the number of films a month a customer can rent.

It was revealed that they practised throttling, where high-volume customers experienced slower shipments from different warehouses and selections from lower in their rental list.

In late November 2009, Lovefilm stopped adding new DVDs from the distributor Universal Pictures (UK) to the rental area of their site.

This made a number of films unavailable to users, including Public Enemies, The Invention of Lying, Brüno, Funny People, Inglourious Basterds and Kick-Ass.