So I have Netflix, and a friend has Lovefilm. We only use them for streaming, so I can't comment on DVDs or the like. That said, here's the lowdown:
1) Neither of them have much in terms of quantity. Both have very weak catalogues, and are only shadows of what the US gets with Netflix. That may change one day, but it hasn't in the last year or so.
2) That said they're both pretty cheap. £6 per month, I think?
3) Of the two, Netflix is better. It's not good, but it's better than Lovefilm.
4) Library size aside, both work perfectly.
There's also Sky Now; I don't know how much stuff that has.
The problem is what I keep hearing on the car radio - one of the three will have an ad proudly announcing that it has secured exclusive rights to show, say Mad Men (just as a ranndom show). All three do this, so to get anything resembling a half-decent library, you have to subscribe to all three. And even then, it's a tenth or so of what the US gets.
Basically, there's so much licensing/IP negotiating/battling going on over these services here right now that the consumer just loses out completely. It's sad.
But it is cheap as hell, and if you only watch a couple of movies or something a month, it's paid for itself, which is why I still have it. Plus your account lets you watch stuff on any device, any location - I can give my brother my Netflix password, and he can watch the new House of Cards, for example.
