Lumière streaming service Mylum will stop viewing series “indefinitely”.

“Despite all the efforts and support since the inception of Mylum (formerly lumiereseries.com) since 2017, we have not been able to gain a solid place in the streaming market with Mylum.” This can be read in a message on the website. Mylum was part of the Lumière Group, which also produces films, sells DVDs and operates five cinemas.

According to Lumière CEO Benny Salaets, the streaming service was “a small side activity”. Mylum specialized in Scandinavian series. Lumière will continue to offer these series to Belgian channels and streaming services, but no longer directly to the viewer.

At Mylum you bought films and series individually, although “buying” turns out not to be quite the right term. The videos can continue to be streamed “indefinitely” with the customer’s existing login details, but Lumière does not want to put a time limit on this. Aren’t the “buyers” simply losing their films and series? “Certainly not in the short and medium term,” Salaets says on the phone. He does not want to put a number on how long that medium term is.

No downloads

Why don’t users get the chance to download their videos in a form they can keep forever? Sallaets passes on the responsibility: “Because there is currently no comprehensive security that allows us to meet the licensees’ conditions.” In other words: such a download would not be sufficiently protected against further copying and is therefore not allowed.

Mylum’s terms and conditions state that the company is not liable if videos become unavailable for streaming. According to Salaets, services such as Apple (with iTunes) and Amazon have similar conditions. He says that Mylum involves “a few thousand” customers. Anyone who is not deterred by these conditions can still “buy” films and series at half price on Mylum.be until June 14.