Blink & You'll Miss It

We recently received an offer to try out Blinkbox. The online movie and TV rental service provided by Tesco. The unfortunate demise of both Blockbuster and most HMV stores in the past few months has made it quite obvious that people are looking for other ways to view their media. With this in mind, the opportunity to do something a little bit different for you guys and the fact that I'm an unabashed cinemafile, I gladly accepted the offer and sampled 2 films: Friends With Kids (I love anything involving Kristin Wiig) and Deep Blue Sea (Rachel Weiss is truly stunning in this movie & I love the 40s war time era for fashion Inspo!)

So how does it work?
Well, it's exactly like renting a movie from a normal video store, you get the latest releases far in advance of the likes of Netflix & LoveFilm online services. From what I can see they're in line with the DVD releases, maybe even slightly ahead, so it's really up to date! Once you've 'bought' your movie you can watch it as many times as you want for 48 hours. You can stream it online, download it to your computer, games console or internet enabled television through their apps. You can also rent & download in advance, once you've made your purchase you have 30 days in which to start your viewing (very handy for going on holiday or travelling).

How Much Does It Cost?
Prices range from 99p - £3.49 for films and £1.49 per episode for TV (you get discount if you rent the full series at once). You can also choose to buy certain titles permanently for an extra cost (this varies with each title) and they have selected titles where if you buy the DVD through Tesco using your clubcard you automatically get to download it!
There used to be a selection of free rentals but this seems to have been removed recently. Panic not, the website says they will be releasing a new free service this spring.

Why use Blinkbox when I can get Netflix or LoveFilm?
Well truth be told, there really isn't a comparison. No I'm not copping out here, the subscription services are obviously cheaper but you have to wait quite a while for new films and tv shows and often you've given in and bought/watched them elsewhere if you really want to watch them. Well Blinkbox is the elsewhere. It gives you the most up to date releases at the touch of a button and it gives you quite a lot of older content which isn't available on the subscription services. I won't use it as much as I use Netflix, but I will use it to get the films I really want to see and can't get them elsewhere.



*This Service was provided for review but all words and thoughts are my own.