HTC plans to shut down its movie rental and purchase service, called HTC Watch, on 31 March in the UK, an email to users revealed on Sunday.

The shutdown wasn't given an explanation, however HTC told users in the email to download movie purchases to their device if they still want access to the content after the service's close.

HTC first began closing down the HTC Watch service in European countries, including Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden, in May 2013. At the time, it said service in the UK would remain available for users, but that's no longer the case.

Read: HTC Watch movie download service to shut across Europe, UK unaffected

It's not clear if the shutdown is because of "less application traffic" like explained in May 2013 for other European countries, or if because the "Watch" name may become a bit confusing in the future.

HTC Watch was launched in 2011 as competition to Google Play for users to rent and buy films and TV shows to view on a HTC handset. Furthermore, it allows users to stream the DRM-protected content to a TV through the company's Media Link HD peripheral.

We've contacted HTC to learn more about the closing and will update you if any more details come to light.

Read: Video on Android: What's best?

Update HTC's statement: "From 31st March 2014, HTC can confirm that it will no longer support the HTC Watch video-on-demand service. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to HTC Watch subscribers and would encourage any customers affected by the change to contact their local HTC support centre. Our focus continues to be on offering the best possible mobile experience to customers everywhere and our strength lies in empowering people to discover and access the right content for them from the wealth of services out there."