Sofa Cinema DVD Rental

SofaCinema recently underwent a site redesign.

Now, not only is the service run by Lovefilm their site's look is almost exactly the same - except that Sofacinema has a link to The Guardian at the top of the page and no movie content from either Lovefilm or the newspaper.

Guardian Angel

The SofaCinema brand is owned by the culture-conscious Guardian Media Group.

That used to mean that DVD rental customers benefited from The Guardian's high-brow influence on its extra content and film reviews but that influence has recently departed.

Frankly, we're struggling to think of a reason you'd choose SofaCinema over its parent (supporting print media?!).

Lovefilm's influence is a bit more influential.

It can be felt in the SofaCinema DVD Rental site - borrowed from the user-tested-to-death Lovefilm structure - and in the deal prices, which are the same either way.

Lovefilm also bring game rental deals to SofaCinema, although there's little games content on the site and no games-only deals so it's not a service for serious button-bashers such as Swapgame game rental is.

And note that SofaCinema users aren't spared Lovefilm's problems either.

A argument between Lovefilm and Universal means that renters can't get popular titles such as Public Enemies, Bruno and Kick Ass.

So why get SofaCinema instead of Lovefilm?

We don't know. The Guardian has a superb film section but it's not here and Lovefilm's own site heaves with film features and interviews too.

Just as Lovefilm users do, SofaCinema subscribers also get access to online streaming services for free with deals over £5.99 a month.

All in all, we're finding it pretty tricky to think of many reasons to choose this one over its parent company...