The cheapest (legal) ways to watch films online

Netflix, the online movie and TV streaming service, is now available in the UK for the first time.

Their move across the Atlantic has sparked a price war with UK-based rivals Lovefilm and shows that watching movies on the internet is now big business.

[Quiz: Guess the movie haircut]

With more choice than ever, Yahoo! Movies investigated who is offering what, and where you can find the best deals for legally watching flicks online.


Netflix

They will charge £5.99 a month for unlimited online movie and TV subscription streaming, but their DVD-by-post service has not made it to the UK.

They have most of the major movie studios signed up, including Walt Disney, Lionsgate, MGM, Miramax, Momentum Pictures, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, as well as TV content from ITV, the BBC and Channel 4.

Lovefilm

To counter this Lovefilm basically halved the price of their unlimited streaming package Lovefilm Instant – from £9.99 to just £4.99-a-month. Again users can stream content over the internet on their computer, internet TVs or PlayStation 3.

However this is billed as a “special launch price”, which suggests it won’t stay this low for long.

The Amazon-owned service recently announced they had more than 1.5 million subscribers, but it’s not all been plain-sailing for the site.

An early introduction of downloadable content has since been suspended, and in 2009 a dispute with Universal Pictures has meant none of the studios' titles from that year onwards have been on the site.

One-off rentals to non-members for new releases are between

£2.49 to £3.49.

[See more: Best selling DVDs of 2011 revealed]

BlinkBox

If you want to support a smaller company, there's always BlinkBox.com where you can stream movies from £1 or even free for a single view (usually £3.49 for new releases) and £9.99 for unlimited watches.

We found ‘Funny Games’, ‘Human Traffic’ and ‘An American Werewolf in London’ available to watch for free, but the quality wasn’t great.

iTunes

iTunes has offered rentals since 2009, and is one of the biggest sellers out there. It's also one of the simplest systems, as users download the content through their store and can even watch in the iTunes programme.

Apple works with all the major studios, and most of the smaller ones, to offer the latest DVD and Blu-ray releases for rent in digital form. Its terms and conditions are skewed to encourage you to buy though.

Rentals are start at £0.99 for older titles and rise to £3.49 for new releases, and you can view as many times as you want for a 48 hour period. To buy usually costs £9.99.

Some 99p rentals we found were: 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' and 'The Rock'.

Curzon Artificial Eye

It's not only 'home entertainment' releases getting the streaming and download treatment either, more films are choosing to synch online availability with theatrical releases. Arthouse chain Curzon Artificial Eye, for example, have set up 'Curzon on Demand', an HD player where film lovers can stream the latest releases for £8 a time. They also offer older films for £4.

It's a bit pricier, but especially handy if you don't have an independent cinema nearby and want to catch the latest obscure film from Denmark, or gritty British doc, while it's still at cinemas.

Those of us with more modest means, however, are tracking new innovations in order to find the cheapest (legal) ways to watch films online.


YouTube

YouTube's attempts to enter the streaming market is one. They're roster isn't comprehensive, but they still have major films like

'Bridesmaids' and 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part II' available to watch (within a period of 48 hours) for £3.49.

They also have more than 6,000 films available to stream for free. The only snag is the ads. But then it's no worse than watching on TV.

Some freebies are ace doc 'Life in a Day', erotic thriller 'Wild Things' and er, terrible Guy Ritchie movie 'Revolver'.

[See more: The most exciting films of 2012]

Orange

Orange have expanded their 'Orange Wednesdays' offer by giving customers a free movie download (via a 35p text message) to view on smartphones, tablets or computer every Thursday. Orange 'film to go' requires an iTunes account and an app for your mobile device. This week's free movie? 'Becoming Jane'.

Flixster

And now that Warner Brothers own film sharing/reviewing app Flixster, we can expect more developments from them too. But they'll have to watch out, a rival app called 'Flickme' looks startlingly similar.

Facebook

The other goldmine for distributors is Facebook, with its billions of users available to buy their wares. Universal already offered users the chance to watch 'The Big Lewbowski' for free as part of its campaign promoting the Blu-ray release, but the studios have yet to find a sustainable way to rent out films on the social networking site.

Miramax

The first to do so may yet be Miramax, who will be offering Facebook users in the UK the chance to rent its home entertainment catalogue (including the likes of 'Kill Bill' and 'Good Will Hunting') for £1.80 a film.

So it seems the competition is heating up already. But with so many changes on the horizon, it seems the cheapest (legal) way to watch films online may still be to wait and see.

Found any other good movie streaming deals online? Let us know in the comments section below.