Stelios Haji-Ioannu'seasyCinema has launched what it claims is the UK's cheapest postal DVD rentalservice.

The service, operated oneasyCinema's behalf by Video Island, will charge a DVD rental rate of £1.99 perfilm and allow customers to keep the film for up to three weeks. The pricecompares favourably with the average rental store tariff of £3.10 and newpostal supplier Amazon.com's £3.50 for five nights.

The easyCinema proposal is alsodifferentiated from other postal DVD suppliers in that it does not charge amonthly fee. Instead, targeting the less active rental customers, it will sellpackages of rentals similar to pay-as-you-go or top-up mobile phone services.

"Once again the easyGroup haslowered prices to customers," said Haji-Ioannu, who also runs easyJet, easyCarand easyMoney. "We are using the website of our cinema business so thatconsumers can chose whether to buy a seat online to visit our movie theatre orwhether to rent a DVD to be sent to them."

"We are delighted to be joiningwith easyGroup to launch the country's first ever pay as you go DVD rentalservice, said Saul Klein, Video Island CEO.

VideoIsland, which operates under the Tesco, MSN and ITV brands, is the UK's leadingonline DVD rental company with over 500,000 rentals per month. According tomarket researcher Hitwise, Video Island accounts for 35% of online rentals,ahead of Blockbuster with 33% for Blockbuster and 27% for Lovefilm.