HTC Watch, the company’s film (and TV show) rental and purchase service, is to shut its doors at the end of the month in the UK.

This fact was revealed in an email circulated to HTC Watch users yesterday, although no explanation was given for the move.

It’s not surprising, in a way, as because Pocket Lint notes, the Watch service had already begun shuttering in other European countries, such as Spain, Italy, and throughout Scandinavia.

The service will operate as usual throughout this month. However, be warned that if you have movies or shows purchased, you need to download them to your device before 31 March or else lose them (the email made this clear, of course).

Other comments we’ve seen on the net this morning (from Americans who have also received an email) indicate that the service is also being cleared out in the US, too.

Why is HTC Watch being closed down? As we’ve said, there’s no official line on this yet, but it seems like it can’t have been doing very good business. Let’s face it, there are a lot of big name rivals out there in the movie streaming world…

Others have mulled the possibility that it could be due to a name clash with HTC’s rumoured upcoming smartwatch, but if that was the case, surely the company could simply change the name of HTC Watch rather than killing it? We reckon it must have been a lack of usage.